SoaringNZ Issue 47

NEW ZEALAND’S PREMIER SOARING MAGAZINE

KIWIS FLY IN AUSSIC SOUTH ISLAND REGIONALS PAUL TISSANDIER DIPLOMAS YOUTH GLIDE CAMP • CLUB NEWS i s s u e 4 7 N o v e m b e r 2 0 16 – J a n u a r y 2 0 17

IMAGES THAT SOAR ABOVE THE ORDINARY

John McCaw – aviation and agricultural photographer

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C OMMIS SIONS A ND S T O CK LIBR A RY SP ECI A LIS T S

contents

november 2016–january 2017

features 10 World Gliding Championships countdown begins with Australian National Championships at Kingaroy

10

12

Steve Wallace's Aussie Adventures

14

Tasman Trophy

16 18

Central Plateau Soaring Competition, Taupo

22 28 32 34 36 40 42

The Paul Tissandier Diploma

The South Island Regional Gliding Competition 2016

EL – for Electric GP Gliders – The Future of Gliding Youth Glide Mini Camp Greytown The Height of Impossibility UK Junior Wave Camp Scotland Youth Glide. Where Are They Now?

regulars 6 Log Book 37 Gliding Book Corner 38 Vintage & Classic: An Update and Launch of the Vintage Kiwi Archive section

16

34

44 45 46 46 47 50

A Question of Safety Airworthiness Gliding New Zealand News GNZ Awards & Certificates Gliding New Zealand Club News Classified Advertising

40

UK $100 Europe $109 USA $109

Publisher

Advertising, editorial and subscription enquiries

McCaw Media Ltd

Editor Jill McCaw soaringnz@mccawmedia.co.nz

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ISSN 2016–January 1178-4784 2017 November 3

from the editor november 2016–january 2017 WELCOME TO THE PEOPLE ISSUE OF SOARINGNZ. We all know gliding is completely dependent on the weather.

That’s so self-evident, you’re probably wondering why I even mentioned it. The answer is that great stretches of non-flying weather make it very hard to fill the pages of your soaring magazine. The number of club news reports I’ve received this issue have been scant and the contest reports are skinny.

Not to worry. Contest reports can get very same old, same old. I’d be interested in a show of hands to see who actually reads the reports from contests they weren’t at. Drop me a quick email, the address is in the box at the bottom of the contents page. It’s just a straw poll and I won’t publish your name or words unless you ask me to. We do try to shake up contest reports by using stories from people whose contest experience was different for one reason or another. Even so, when a competition was the wettest on record, or didn’t really take off for one reason or another, the number of magazine pages needed to record that event drop from a possible eight to maybe three.

All those extra pages to fill. What an opportunity to try something new.

This issue, our feature stories are about gliding people.

We’re celebrating the people who make up our community, something I intend to make an ongoing thing. We’ve had two extraordinary pilots rewarded for their long-term commitment to our sport by the international aviation sporting body the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI). Lemmy Tanner and Trevor Mollard were both awarded this year’s prestigious Tissandier Diploma (one each). See the articles, starting on page 22 for an explanation of why that’s so amazing and read their life stories. They have an incredible number of hours each. Lemmy has 15,000 hours on helicopters and 6,000 hours on gliders with 23,500 hours in total. Trevor said that his 23,000 total hours equals three years off the planet. I’ll take his word for it as I’ve not actually done the maths myself. Their stories needed to be told and their awards gave the perfect excuse.

From the old hands, we then take a look at some people with a lot fewer hours who are equally, if not more important, to the future of our sport. The first Youth Soaring Development Camp was held at Omarama in 2011 but the infant version of Youth Glide had been forming and gaining traction for several years before that. Youth Glide Omarama, the starting point of

NEW ZEALAND’S PREMIER SOARING MAGAZINE

AUSSIE NATIONAL CHAMPS SOUTH ISLAND REGIONALS PAUL TISSANDIER DIPLOMA YOUTH GLIDE CAMP • CLUB NEWS i s s u e 4 7 N o v e m b e r 2 0 16 – J a n u a r y 2 0 17

4

A new ASH 30 over the famous Wasserkuppe mountain, Germany, the birthplace of gliding.

Photo Manfred Muench

November 2016–January 2017

The first Youth Soaring Development Camp participants December 2011.

the whole movement, was instigated by Tom Shields and Gavin Wills, and grew out of the Air Training Corps, about 2006.

Youth Glide Canterbury, driven by Roger Read (who should be knighted for his efforts then and since), came into existence around the summer of 2008 with a camp of young Canterbury Gliding Club members. The inaugural meeting of Youth Glide New Zealand, the National body, was held in my (rented during earthquake rebuilding) lounge room in October 2011. Youth Glide has raced ahead in the ensuing five years with Youth Glide groups active in most of our clubs and 46 young people actively flying through the organisation.

That is an awful lot of effort, people hours and money, going into helping young people fly gliders.

Where are those original young people now? Did their involvement in Youth Glide have an impact on their lives? Has

next issue

magazine deadlines

Next Issue: Worlds, North Island Regionals, Multi-Class Nationals

Deadline for Club News, articles and pictures is 22 January and 3 February for advertising.

subscription form Name:_______________________________________________________________ Address:_____________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________ Postcode ______________ Phone _______________________________________________________________ Email_________________________________________________________________ Annual Subscription Rates – four issues a year (All GNZ members automatically subscribed)

it all been worth it? It seems that it has.

We’ve got stories from two ‘originals’ this issue and will run more in future issues. Some of these young people are already doing amazing things. Read their stories and keep an eye out for more of this series in the future.

Actually, we’ve got stories from three ‘originals’ this issue, but my son Alex’s story, page 40, isn’t part of the Youth Glide series. I wasn’t going to run his story, it seemed a bit nepotistic.

He does feature in the magazine fairly frequently. But, taking after his father, it turns out he’s rather good at photography as well as flying gliders, and since we had pages to fill, I’m fairly sure you’ll enjoy his pictures from the UK Junior Wave camp in Scotland.

Let’s hope this summer turns into a cracker, hot, dry soaring season. It won’t stop me filling the pages of the magazine with stories on interesting people. It would be nice to have some good flight stories to go with them though.

Enjoy the holiday season and time with your families.

Fly well and fly safe.

Jill McCaw

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logbook november 2016–january 2017

GRANTS

GLIDING NZ UMBRELLA TRUST If you have an upcoming event that may be worthy of Trust funding, check out the Umbrella Trust information on the GNZ website under ‘About’.

There you will find the grant application form, a summary of the various funds and their purposes, and a history of successful applications.

The Trustees are bound by instructions from the donee trusts and the purpose of each fund is specific, although in some cases a fund allows for ‘other purposes’. The Trustees cannot use the original capital for grants, and in some cases only 50% of the income can be used for grants.

The Trustees look favourably on applications that are received before deadline and well in advance of the event as this helps Trustees ascertain the best distribution of available funds. Applications after the event will not be accepted. The Trust doesn’t provide grants for capital items but the Loans Fund may be able to assist with this.

Application deadlines are 31 May and 31 October for twice yearly Trustee meetings in June and November - please get your application in sooner rather than later.

Laurie Kirkham laurie.kirkham@xtra.co.nz Umbrella Trust Secretary/Treasurer

NZ ASSOCIATION OF WOMEN IN AVIATION NEXT RALLY TO BE HELD IN WANAKA Calling all women glider pilots and their supporters. The 2017 annual ‘Air Women’s’ Rally will be held at Wanaka Airport over Queen’s Birthday Weekend. The rally is a great chance to get together with a bunch of aviation enthusiasts, share stories and show off your skills. While the weekend involves competitions for all aviation disciplines, it isn’t necessary to compete to participate. The gliding competitions aren’t too arduous, there are two - a precision circuit and a blind instrument circuit. Most people, even early hour students should be able to have a go at them. The social element of the weekend is well worth the price of admission and men are more than welcome to attend.

RNZAF’S HYPOBARIC CHAMBER HAS A NEW HOME

Many glider pilots have had the chance, over the years, to safely experience the effects of altitude and hypoxia in the RNZAF’s Vacudyne 9A9 hypobaric chamber. The Aviation Medical Unit which had housed the unit at Hobsonville had to find a new home after the old building was found not to meet earthquake standards. At last, a major exercise has seen the 37 tonne chamber re-join the unit in a new home on base at Whenuapai.

The chamber, bought in 1966 for a cost of US$500,000, works by reducing the air pressure to simulate the thinner air at altitude. It can do this gradually, to simulate the insidious nature of hypoxia as a pilot ascends, or rapidly to expose aircrew to the effects of explosive decompression.

The chamber is being refurbished in its new home and will be open for business again shortly. It is hoped that hypobaric courses for glider pilots will be available again.

Set in the glorious scenery of Wanaka, this is a rally not to be missed.

LS8 Winglet-Kits now available for sale

Canterbury AWA members on a recent fly in to Rangitata Island

6

November 2016–January 2017

DGs new Dillinger-Winglets for the LS8’s 15m version are gaining lots of attention in various competitions. Certification work is now finished. DG have started to produce and ship winglet-kits. For questions, quotes and more details, please contact spareparts@dg-flugzeugbau.de.

GAVIN WILLS

M O U N TA IN SOARING SCHOOL Learn-to-Fly Post Solo to QGP Mountain Soaring Guest instructors: Uli Schwenk Justin Wills

ADVENTURE SOARING FLIGHTS

Inquiries and Bookings phone +64 3 438 9555 | www.glideomarama.com

November 2016–January 2017

7

logbook november 2016–january 2017

NEWS FRITS BRINK ELECTED NEW FAI PRESIDENT Frits Brink from the Netherlands was elected as the new President of FAI, the World Air Sports Federation, at the 110th FAI General Conference in Bali, Indonesia.

An owner of a private pilot licence since 1986, Brink has held several high level positions in various sports organisations, including President of the Royal Netherlands Aeronautical Association (six years); Vice-President of the Netherlands Olympic Committee (eight years); FAI Executive Board Member (four years).

Brink said following his election: “I would like to thank all those who have put their trust in me to head the FAI. I feel honoured by the confidence they showed by choosing me. I will do my best to fulfil my duties.”

“Together with the Executive Board and the excellent head office team led by the Secretary General in Lausanne, we will manage the bright future of air sports.”

110TH FAI GENERAL CONFERENCE The sessions of the 110th FAI General Conference were held at the Westin Nusa Dua Hotel in Bali, Indonesia, on 14 and 15 October 2016.

More than 100 delegates from Active, Associate, Temporary Member Countries and International Affiliate Members were present, as well as FAI elected Officers, Presidents of Honour, Companions of Honour, delegates appointed by Presidents of Commissions and Observers.

The General Conference was officially opened on Thursday 13 October during a ceremony where FAI Awards and Diplomas were presented by the President Dr John Grubbström.

A spectacular air show by the Jupiter Aerobatic Team, the Indonesian Air Force aerobatic display team flying with six KT-1B Wongbee, impressed the participants on Friday, before the start of the Conference.

Elections Frits BRINK (Netherlands) was elected as FAI President for a 2-year mandate.

The Delegates voted for Bengt LINDGREN (Sweden), Mary Anne STEVENS (Canada) and Jean-Claude WEBER (Luxemburg) to join the Executive Board.

Bob HENDERSON (New Zealand), Alvaro DE ORLEANS BORBON (Spain) and Agust GUDMUNDSSON (Iceland) were re-elected.

Future General Conferences The Delegates voted in favour of the bid by Egypt to host the 112th FAI General Conference in Luxor in 2018.

The next FAI General Conference will take place on 26 and 27 October 2017 in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The Minutes of the General Conference will be released at the beginning of 2017.

FAI WORLD AIR GAMES’ GLOBAL IMPACT MEASURED According to the latest analysis from Sportcal’s Global Sports Impact [GSI] Project, the FAI World Air Games Dubai 2015 delivered a global impact across over 200 nations, in what was the fifth-largest world championships event in terms of athlete participation last year.

Sportcal provides intelligence for world-leading sports organisations.

FAI President Frits Brink said: “We knew the FAI World Air Games in Dubai were a success, but this GSI Event Study confirms it. It allows us to see exactly how many people took part, the impact on the city, and the global media reach through television channels and social media around the world… it has helped us identify where we can grow and how we can do that. In short, it provides a blueprint on which we can build bigger and better events and competitions as we grow and move forward.”

FAI ESTABLISHES A WORKING GROUP ON DRONES As part of its work in drone sports, the FAI has now established a Working Group on matters related to drones. The Working Group

L-13 BLANIKS NO LONGER GROUNDED WORLD-WIDE Blanik America reports that after considerable work by Blanik Aircraft CZ, a rebuilt L-13 Blanik has successfully been test flown. The aircraft uses a modification developed by the company, now certified by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). EASA have now lifted the Airworthiness Directive which has been grounding the Blanik L-13 gliders in Europe since 2010.

The Blanik Aircraft Company has launched massproduction modification of L-13 Blaniks. By doing the modification, the gliders service life may be extended up to six thousand flight hours.

In October Vaclav Krizek, Chief Executive Officer, Blanik Aircraft CZ sent the following to Blanik America.

8

November 2016–January 2017

L-13 Blanik AD fix Dear owners and supporters of L-13 Blanik gliders.

We are proud we can announce to the soaring community that the FAA has released Federal Aviation Administration approval of the Blanik Limited Airworthiness Restoration of the Blanik Limited model L-13 glider – FAA Project Number AT00794CE-G. Now we are closely working with the FAA to submit and approve an AMOC (Alternative Method of Compliance) which will precisely specify how to maintain the fleet of grounded L-13s in the U.S. based on their technical condition. We believe that we are close to the solution which will get the L-13 fleet flying again.

Our goal is to bring the L-13s back to the sky before next season.

logbook november 2016–january 2017

It’s only in the event of a

will deal with sporting and regulatory aspects of drones, ensuring rigorous rules development for Drone Sports, based on the FAI Sporting Code on FPV Racing. This will include the rules for the first FAI World Championships to be held in 2017, and possibly Regional Championships. The group will connect Drone Racing event organisers around the world with FAI, grow the number of events on all levels and organise recognition in the FAI World Cup. The Working Group will also assist national FAI Member Organisations and national Aeromodelling and Drone organisations in advising appropriate regulatory authorities on drone activities by collecting, assessing and disseminating relevant information, based on the FAI Common Strategy for Drones (www.fai.org/ ciam-news/41415-common-fai-strategy-for-drones).

Another initiative for the group is a planned FAI International Drone Conference and Expo, which will feature FPV Racing as well as panel discussions about Sports development, regulatory and safety aspects as well as the practical uses of drones in areas such as maintenance, agriculture, and aerial filming, where the pilots often get their start in Aeromodelling. Drone manufacturers and student groups will also be invited to participate.

For questions or inquiries please contact drones@fai.org.

Contributions to Logbook are welcome from all of our readers within New Zealand and internationally.

Email your news snippets to: soaringnz@mccawmedia.co.nz.

Please put "logbook" in the subject line.

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November 2016–January 2017

9

World Gliding Championships countdown begins with

AUSTRALIAN NATIONA CHAMPIONSHIPS AT KI

The top competition glider pilots from around Australia converged on Kingaroy, Qld, for two weeks of intense competition. New National Champions in four classes of competition were decided after ten competition days.

T

he competition marked the beginning of the lead-up to the World Gliding Championships at Benalla, Victoria, being held 8 - 22 January 2017.

WGC Benalla Championship Director Terry Cubley said "The challenging conditions at Kingaroy over ten flying days were perfect preparation for the World Championships in January. We were happy that the Chinese team, Japanese team and NZ team were also able to use the competition as part of their preparation for Benalla. They joined four of the Australian team pilots in vying for the top positions at Kingaroy. The

10

November 2016–January 2017

competition was hard fought and brought many challenges to the competing Australian and international pilots, an excellent way to prepare for what they will have to face when 114 of the world’s best pilots meet at Benalla in January.”

In the prestigious Open and 18m Classes, John Buchanan and David Jansen, members of host club Kingaroy Gliding Club, took first and second places. Tom Claffey from NSW took third place. Tom said "The Nationals at Kingaroy brought challenging weather and a very high standard of competition for four of the team members training for the WGC in Benalla in January."

NAL T KINGAROY Makoto Ichikawa

Adam Woolley

Bruce Taylor, who is also on the Australian Gliding Team, was pipped at the post into 4th position in Open Class. Bruce said "Kingaroy provided a wide range of conditions and tasks and required excellent technical knowledge and tactical prowess from the successful pilots."

Flying Hors Concours in Standard Class, Makoto Ichikawa from Japan made top score. Mak has been a regular visitor to Australia and flown in many national competitions over the years. Mak will be representing Japan at WGC Benalla in 15m Class.

The 15m Class was dominated by local Queensland pilots.

Adam Woolley took first place, followed by Jim Crowhurst and Australian team member Steve O’Donnell.

"After several months of glider preparation it was great to compete in a two week event, where the competition was at a high level and the weather and tasking were different every day."

Steve said

November 2016–January 2017

11

Steve Wallace's

AUSSIE ADVENTURES

Organising a glider for an overseas contest can be somewhat of a challenge and turned out to be even more complicated than usual.

BY STEVE WALLACE

A

n Aussie registered Ventus 2ax, that I’d previously tried to get and not been able to, became available for the Aussie Nationals and the Worlds and I couldn’t turn it down. This meant cancelling a flight to Tamworth and turning down the glider I had hired from Lake Keepit while rebooking for Dubbo, as well as turning down Ross Gaddes’ generous offer to fly his beautifully presented Ventus, ‘666, the beast’. It also meant towing the Ventus 2a ‘67’ I had now hired, 850km from Narromine in central western NSW to Kingaroy in central Queensland and back again after the contest, but this is what gliding adventures are all about so I relished the opportunity. I towed in convoy with Mark Rowe from Narromine. I think he pushed his little Hilux just a bit too hard though, as after many stops to replace the radiator water it kept losing, it eventually blew a head gasket 80km short of our destination, making the end to a long day’s driving just that little bit longer.

With two days before the contest, my first day at Kingaroy was spent rigging, scrutineering (paperwork, reference weighing, etc.) and installing and programming a new flight

12

November 2016–January 2017

computer. The next day was official practice day but I didn’t end up going far as the weather was average and I still had a number of issues to sort with the glider. It hadn't been flown for almost a year and wasn’t competition ready. Unfortunately the big issues persisted throughout the contest, these being a radio that could transmit but not receive and a left tank dump valve that wouldn’t seal. This meant I had to fly empty or with one wing full and one wing empty. Not great choices but this was the purpose of the contest, to identify and get such issues sorted before the Worlds.

The 15m class which was later renamed the ‘Steve’ class had no fewer than 1/3 of all the competitors named Steve. Row 3, my row of the grid, was known as “The Row of Steve” with myself, Steve O’Donnell, Steve McMahon and Steve Foreman making up the row. Immediately behind us in row 4 was Steve Evans, an ex-Kiwi flying under the NZ flag for the comp, making for a total of six Kiwis and five Steves in the comp.

Just prior to the contest there had been a massive amount of rain in the area so with all that water on the ground, conditions

AUSTRALIAN NATIONALS

S

67 & 47 Landout

were a bit weaker than normal and task speeds a bit slower, especially in the first week.

Day one was made up of weak, low, blue thermals and a very short 174 km racing task was set. Getting the next thermal was a bit like Russian Roulette and 2/3 of our class ended up landing out. I ended up in a nice ploughed peanut paddock with Alan Belworthy (my NZ team mate in the 15m class for the Worlds), just 22km from home.

We then flew the next five days in a row in a variety of conditions with racing tasks set as short as 167 km, making for greatly devalued days, to other days with tasks up to 450 km. My results seemed as varied as the conditions. Some days my lack of useful water ballast really seemed to hurt and on other days it didn’t seem to matter. After seven days straight of flying, the organisers were compelled to call a compulsory rest day so I jumped in Neil Dunn’s Yak 18 with Brett Hunter and Mark Tingey from NZ and we flew east through all the bush fire smoke (yes, Aussie burns even when it has been wet) to Caloundra where we had a nice day on the beach and a great

The row of Steve

meal at a local café. It’s funny how nice it is to see the ocean, when in NZ you can be used to seeing it on an almost daily basis. It’s certainly hard to go flying in NZ and not see the ocean. Anyway, it was great day off and getting to have a fly of the Yak was great fun.

Nicely refreshed it was back into the last three days of flying which completed 10 flying days out of 10. Gotta love that reliable Aussie gliding weather. In the end I was happy enough with my result, feeling that the mission was a success in that I was able to determine that the glider I will fly at the Worlds is a very nice and comfortable glider to fly. She thermals easily and climbs well and while there is a list of issues, they are all easily fixable.

The Aussies as usual were great and generous hosts. The event was well organised and well run and the flying was fun.

Good times all round!

November 2016–January 2017

13

TASMAN TROPHY

BY STEVE FOREMAN

It all started back in January 2016 with winning the Tasman Trophy at Taupo.

Now I had to defend it in Kingaroy. This was Steve McMahon’s home skies which was going to make things very tough indeed.

I

have realised that in gliding, there is a very good natural progression which any pilot can work towards even if they’re like myself, an average pilot with a little determination While learning to glide and even after QGP, the thought that I could fly tasks of 400 km just seemed so far from what I was capable of. Actually, when I look back, taking small steps in the right direction was the key.

I had to write a CV to be able to hire Kingaroy’s Discus. I had not thought about having to write a CV for gliding but enjoyed what I had put together. For pilots who are thinking “how do I go cross country”, writing down your goals in a CV format is a great help Here is my progression: It all kicked off, at 55 hours, with the 2012 Matamata cross country course

Nov 2012 June 2013 Nov 2013 2013

2014 2014 June 2014 Nov 2014 2014 2015 June 2015

Nov 2015 2015 Jan 2016

Feb 2016 2016

14

Silver C – all in PW5 VF from Whenuapai Gold Distance from Whenuapai Central Plateau Competition, Taupo – Placed 13th North Island Regionals, Matamata 2013 – Placed 7th Awarded most improved competition pilot 2013 Multiclass Nationals, Matamata – Placed14th Drury Competition, Auckland – Placed 15th Awarded Air New Zealand Soaring Award Central Plateau Competition, Taupo – Placed 9th North Island Regionals, Matamata – Placed 7th NZ Club Class Nationals, Drury Awarded Buckland Trophy, North Island OLC Champion 1st, 3415 pts Flew over 8,500 kms in 2015 season, OLC 2nd, New Zealand Central Plateau Competition, Taupo – Placed 13th North Island Regionals, Matamata – Placed 12th Multiclass Nationals, Taupo – Placed 14th Tasman Trophy Winner Diamond Goal from Whenuapai 55th Australian Nationals, Kingaroy. 15 metre class – Placed 15th

November 2016–January 2017

As you can see by my placings, it’s a sport that takes time and many land outs but I am still taking those small steps with every flight and competition. Four years after the cross country course, I was flying at Kingaroy alongside five of the New Zealand National Team: Steve, Brett, Alan, Tim and Mark.

I was very lucky to have a loan of Steve McMahon’s 4x4.

We drove to Kingaroy, arriving late on Saturday evening. I was nervous. New field, new glider. After a check flight and briefing in the ASK21 I was cleared to fly the Discus B. I had 350 hrs in the LS4 but was apprehensive and only managed 13 minutes and didn’t do a great landing. Stephen O’Donnell put me back in the air for a 19 minute flight with a better landing and I was feeling better about things.

The following day was practice day and with 32 minutes air time, I needed to get up to speed. I had two hours but didn’t stray far from the field.

DAY ONE I suffered a few thoughts of being out of my depth flying in the Aussie Nationals with the Top Guns of the sport. The start gate opened. I flew 47 km and landed out at an airfield in Wondai, getting an aero tow back to base. Not a great start but plenty of room to improve.

DAY TWO 177 km at 86 kph. I got around but came last for the day. I was introduced to the Bunyas (which are like the Kaimais) and the Darling Downs huge crop fields which have good thermals and plenty of land out opportunities. I gained confidence from this flight and changed my mindset to “I can do it”.

There were 60 gliders taking part and in the 15 metre class, 1/3 were being flown by Steve. We had a row of Steves on the grid.

AUSTRALIAN NATIONALS

Even the CD said “Steve Class Gate Open”. A few radio calls were made. “How’s it going Steve?” “Where are you Steve?” etc.

This was another night retrieve. There is no dusk. It’s just lights out at 6 pm.

DAY THREE

DAY SEVEN

After flying 431 km in 6 hrs 35 mins, I landed out 10 km short of the finish line. Steve McMahon, who I was flying against for the Tasman Trophy, also landed out 4 km short of the line. I had tried to put to practise longer glides and not veering off course too much. By the time Steve W and Tim retrieved me, it was dark. I was glad to see them.

It was the first time I had landed in a ploughed paddock, I found it soft and I could stop very quickly. The rule over there is that you only land in ploughed paddocks as you know there are no hidden objects.

A slow day. I just couldn’t get going very fast at all. After 172 km, and late in the day with thermals closing down around 4 pm, I decided to land back as the next turn point was over the Bunyas.

Arriving back at the field, I then went and retrieved Tim who had landed out over the Bunyas.

Parts of the contest will stay in my mind. This day was one of them. I couldn’t have had my eyes more open when 40 – 50 gliders ended up in one thermal at the first turn point.

DAY FOUR A relatively short Racing Task of 167 km. I was successful in getting around but at 79 kph, well off the pace of the day winner at 127 kph.

I was getting into the swing of the daily routines. I was up around 6 am, glider DI-ed, washed, water ballast filled, daily weighing and on the grid at 9 am, then briefing at 9.30 am.

DAY FIVE This was another huge task of 427 km. I felt like I had a great day and was hoping I had beaten Steve McMahon. It turned out I was 2 kph behind him at 111 kph. It was to be my highest points day of the competition at 729 points.

In previous competitions, my main focus had been to get around. At Kingaroy I made the shift to kilometres and distance tactics with starting tactics and flying with water ballast. We didn’t seem to have any days with the same weather conditions.

DAY SIX I got low on the lee side of the Bunyas, 39 km short of the finish after 362 km. Note to self – get high before crossing the Bunyas.

DAY EIGHT I completed the task: 314 km at 98 kph and placed 12th. 5 kph off the pace of Steve McMahon and my best place for a day - 10th with 241 km.

DAY TEN The last day and I didn’t want to land out with dinner and the awards being later on. Well, I did land out but I made 148 km and it so happened that Steve McMahon only managed 98 km. This was the only day that I had beaten him. Maybe another week would have helped.

What a fantastic experience. I had the privilege of flying alongside so many great pilots. I wasn’t able to bring the trophy back but the memories will be long lasting and I learned a lot.

There were a lot of wonderful people in a range of ages in the competition, proving that it is never too late to give it a go. It’s fair to say that while exhausting, the experience gained from 40 hours and 2500 km in competition flying is immense and I look forward to flying our Regionals to test some of my new found skills.

What a fantastic sport we are involved in.

November 2016–January 2017

15

Central Plateau Soaring Competition

TAUPO

BY BRETT CAMERON

29 OCTOBER – 5 NOVEMBER 2016 Contest Director – John Etches. 10 entries.

The emphasis was on fun with 30km circles for some turn points.

DAY ONE With 8 knot thermals a great day was had by everyone. The last turn point was tricky (Kaingaroa HQ) with a heavy shower coming through that killed any lift. Those who made the turn point before the rain managed to sneak home (well, everyone except Brett who stopped into River lodge for a coffee!).

DAY TWO Another good-looking day with some booming thermals, up to 10 knots. Brett found another airstrip, this time in the King Country. He was getting low and not being able to find the preferred airstrip, the decision to go for another unseen strip (steep rugged hill country with no other landing options) made for some excitement as the strip was covered in sheep and he was too low for any other options. Using full air-brakes and lots of telepathy and wishful thinking on Brett’s part, the sheep parted and exposed a nice smooth green strip. Chalk that one up as to something he has no desire to repeat. No lamb for the BBQ though.

Ian, in HS, got low over Benneydale and spent a considerable

16

November 2016–January 2017

time exploring the area. It is not on the tourist route, and for good reason, and it is fair to say Ian has no wish to return. Trev, Tim, Tony, Peter, Dave and Hugh all decided to go down the eastern side of the Pureoras (good decision), and had some great flying all the way down to the mountains and back to Taupo with the vario off the clock at times.

DAY THREE Average looking conditions turned into a pretty good day. Hugh had an engine start near the Waiau Dam and Ian, in HS, got caught in the sea breeze and landed at Galatea (another spot that he has no wish to return to).

DAY FOUR No fly day with a BBQ instead.

DAY FIVE Too windy to fly at Taupo so we headed north to Matamata for a task on the ridge. At least we would set a task and with big circles around Thames, we had the option of pushing up the stunning Coromandel coast (which some did).

Trev got a tow up and the rest of us trailered our way up.

A good breeze had us racing on the ridge with Tony at

144.68 kph average, Tim 144.45 kph and Trev at 140.03 kph.

Was great fun and turned a no fly day into a task. Bill didn’t manage his toilet break too well and came screaming back to visit the bathroom. Brett had a radio fuse blow on tow and had to return to fix it.

DAY SIX The grid was set but the task was abandoned due to weather.

DAY SEVEN Again, the weather played against us.

Final evening – dinner with crayfish and trout entrée.

Results

1 2 3

Trev Terry Tony Davies Tim Bromhead

TT XP BA

Duo Discus Discus DG300

3521 3219 3134

Many thanks to everyone behind the scenes who helped make this a fun event.

November 2016–January 2017

17

FROM FOOTY TO FLYING

THE SOUTH ISLAND Regional Gliding Competition 2016

Photo Jill McCaw

12–19 NOVEMBER 2016

BY GAVIN WILLS

The contest was again organised by the Canterbury Gliding with Convener Kevin Bethwaite and the position of Contest Director taken over by Gavin Wills. Neil Alison and Lex McPhail were the main “backroom” boys on radios, management and scoring. Dave Tillman was the Treasurer. This team has many years of experience running this contest and as expected they did a great job.

T

he Task setting group consisted of Gavin, Max Stevens and Theo Newfield plus Lemmy Tanner as the Weather man and Lex as Scorer.

Gavin says, “For my part, it was easy to work with the Canterbury guys. Their dedication, timely support and advice simplified my job enormously. My association with Glide Omarama meant I had plenty of additional resources to draw on as required. One good example of this was the rostering of our daily off duty tow pilot as launch controller.”

After initial misgivings regarding the size of the roles, Gavin found that it was an advantage to be both CD and one of the task setters, enabling timely re-briefings and task changes to be made with minimum fuss.

Towing was provided by Glide Omarama’s two tow planes and the privately owned MAV. Another tow plane would have been nice but we made do and had the grid launched in under an hour on all but one day.

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November 2016–January 2017

PILOTS There were 27 pilots flying 20 gliders with about 25 Fitting a task around the weather. additional crew, family and friends.

The breakdown of pilots by home clubs was interesting: North Island Clubs: 9 pilots Northern South Island pilots (Canterbury and to the North): 4 pilots Southern South Island Pilots (Omarama and to the South): 14 pilots We were grateful that the contest was so well supported by North Islanders particularly the enthusiastic gang from Auckland.

At the contest pre-briefing, pilots were advised to enter either the Open or Racing Class based on their level of competition experience, rather than their glider type or handicap. As a result, while the Racing class had only five entries, their tasks were set to suit their experience and ability and some new faces made the podium.

FLYING The weather was great for farming but very poor for gliding. For most of the previous month, the inordinately wet Omarama spring had been difficult to forecast and often unflyable. Unfortunately, the bad weather climaxed during the contest week, making both weather forecasting and tasking difficult. Due to the difficult weather, there were only three contest days, no practice day and one day that was cancelled on the grid. On two of the three contests days, a successful outcome was made possible only by creative launching and task flexibility.

The tasks set for the two classes, Open and Racing, were well received by the pilots. The longest tasks were 446 km for the Open and 310 km for the Racing, both on day three.

Photo Jill McCaw Photo Jill McCaw

Photo Jill McCaw Photo Jill McCaw

Photo Jill McCaw

Winner in action Keith Essex

Results

Trophies were awarded as follows: Racing – Antony Ryan Trophy: Nick White 20 M class – (no trophy): Dan McCormack and Sabrina Schels 18 M – Glide Omarama Trophy: Keith Essex Open – South Island Trophy: Max Stevens Highest Placed Club glider – (missing): Kevin Bethwaite Highest handicapped speed – Roy and Ivan Evans trophy: Keith Essex 159.4 kph Most Meritorious Flight – Roy Evans Cup: Dan McCormack and Sabrina Schels – 155.7 kph handicapped Best individual Performance – Mt Cook Air Services: Nick White

COMMENTS It is clear that staging gliding competitions at Omarama has reached a critical point with declining numbers and with only a few new pilots signing up. I believe a new and different approach to contests at Omarama should be considered where the gliding community combines its experience and expertise, secures sponsorship and promotes the South Island Championships to a wider group of pilots, family and crew. Along with cross-club cooperation, race coaching could be available and encouraged and an inclusive social program be arranged.

I enjoyed my first attempt at being CD. Thank you Kevin, for inviting me. Thank you also to the Canterbury back room team, the Glide Omarama team and all the other helpers for your outstanding support and for helping make this a successful contest in spite of the weather.

AIRSPACE

Six days before the contest was due to start, the adverse implications for gliding of the new Class C airspace imposed east of the Dunstan ranges was highlighted by the Queenstown chief controller. A rapid negotiation initiated by Gavin Wills and Kevin Bethwaite then occurred with ATC CHCH, and in particular their radar unit. This resulted in the temporary establishment of a Roxburgh sector and a MOU which allowed contest gliders to operate the area up to FL175. Kevin’s role within ATC was absolutely crucial to this timely and successful negotiation.

This MOU was used on the last day of the contest and then revoked. Hopefully it will be available for the Nationals in January. Sometime in the future it is hoped the area will become a G Area.

A new concept for controlling potential head to head traffic in wave was successfully trialled. The CD simply set a height limit to the first turn, which effectively limited the use of wave to reach that turn. The height limit was lifted after the first turn, leaving the pilot free to climb and head back on track.

For example, on the last day a height restriction of 9,500 feet between the start and the first turn at Thompson’s Track enabled pilots the option of, after the turn, climbing to FL 175 in the Roxburgh sector and to track north in wave without fear of meeting oncoming high speed race traffic. This new idea was easily understood by the pilots who considered it a worthwhile safety control for the future use of task setters and the CDs.

November 2016–January 2017

19

SOUTH ISLAND REGIONALS

A most

MERITORIOUS FLIGHT Dan McCormack and Sabrina Schels, flying one of Glide Omarama’s Duo Discuses in the Open Class, won the trophy for the most meritorious flight of the contest. The task was: Start Horrible, Thomsons, Kakanui, Mt Cook, Two Thumbs, Otematata, Omarama with 5 kilometre circles on the turn. Dan and Sabrina flew 459.2 km at 155.7 km/h for 969 points. Dan tells us about the flight.

W

e launched close to the front of the grid and had plenty of time to make a wave entry before the start. We could see a line of good cumulus along the Dunstans and decided that the run south would be in thermals, but a prompt wave entry would be crucial for a good speed on the run north. We descended into the start sector and left for the St Bathans range.

I was thankful for our water ballast as we made the ridge quite easily despite the headwind. Running the street along the Dunstans, we were able to reach the turn at Thomson’s track without circling. From there we could see good cumulus towards the Kakanuis and set off across the flats. A glider low on the Hawkduns served as a warning, and we took a few climbs on this downwind leg. Sabrina hooked a particularly good thermal while I

20

November 2016–January 2017

was taking a pee. Then we joined the sea breeze, which gave us a fast run into the Kakanui turn point and north to the St Mary range.

We tried to get into wave several times in the lee of the Hawkduns. It didn’t work for us but, as the thermals were strong, we didn’t lose too much time. After our last attempt at Omarama Saddle, we set off at 8500 feet across the basin, which was blue.

With no other cloud markers, we chose a likely line between the rotor-cu behind us, and the one 20 km ahead near the Ben Ohau range. We found mostly rising air, and then had a real stroke of luck – abeam Magic mountain, we found ourselves in smooth lift.

Where the thermals were weaker, the wave was coming down lower and we entered it from the side, not from below. The Ben Ohau wave was very strong and we flew the rest of the task at close to VNE.

A Soggy South Island Regionals

A PERSONAL REPORT

BY JILL MCCAW

There were a couple techy things that Lex wanted me to note about this contest. This was the first competition of the modern GPS era. For the first time in NZ there were no Volksloggers, and no Cambridges, i.e., there were no serial port downloads. All the traces came in from USB or download cards.

It made the scoring process much more streamlined.

We also had all the SPOTs working. Radio room duty suddenly became a whole lot less labour intensive as flight following was vastly simplified. When people get better at using their SPOTs, it will get even better.

As always when a bunch of gliding people get together, even if they can’t fly as much as they’d like, it was very social and a lot of fun. We had a quiz night and an evening where the Omarama Airport Ltd gave us an overview of the state of the airfield and plans for the future. The Soaring Centre and

Sailplane Racing Committees both held meetings. The fireplace saw action nearly every night and the final night dinner was again held at the Country Time (where the décor hasn’t changed in the 28 years I’ve been visiting).

We had a considerable number of North Islanders and top of the South club members at the contest. Many thanks to everyone who travelled to join in. With many of the stalwart Canterbury Club pilots not competing for various reasons, it was wonderful to have the rest of you to make up the numbers.

And of course, while we were at it there was a big earthquake. We never felt a thing but what was happening at the top of the South Island was in the back of everyone’s minds. For a while it looked as though the North Island visitors may not be able to get home.

It was an odd week.

Photo Jill McCaw

Arcus, the first in the country, visiting from Auckland

Photo Jill McCaw

This year’s Regionals was not normal. I’ve never seen it so wet or the surrounding area so green. I’ve never been to a contest here with so few days flown. I am in awe of Gavin and the task setters’ ability to get any flying days out of the weather we had.

November 2016–January 2017

21

The Paul Tissandier Diploma Winners

TREVOR MOLLARD AND LEMMY TANNER The Paul Tissandier Diploma was established by the FAI in 1952. It is named after Mr Paul Tissandier, Secretary General of FAI from 1919 to 1945. It is awarded annually to those who have served the cause of Aviation in general and Sporting Aviation in particular, by their work, initiative and devotion or in other ways. New Zealand is awarded Tissandier diplomas a year, across all aviation disciplines. This year, extraordinarily, GNZ’s nominations won both places. Trevor Mollard and Lemmy Tanner were honoured to receive this prestigious award.

Jill McCaw interviewed both men (individually) at the Kahu Cafe while at the South Island Regionals in November. What staggered her the most was the sheer amount of flying both men have done. Trevor has 23,000 hours in total while Lemmy has a little more, with 23,500.

Lemmy chose to receive his diploma at the FAI Conference in Indonesia while Trevor’s was presented

by GNZ President, Karen Morgan at the South Island Regionals’ final night dinner and prize giving.

GNZ President, Karen Morgan, presenting Trevor's Tissandier Diploma.

TREVOR MOLLARD Citation: Trevor Mollard is a very experienced pilot and instructor, beginning with military fixed wing and helicopters in his early days, followed by a career as a calibrationflight pilot and an airline pilot. For all that time, he has also been a keen glider pilot, now with more than 50 years of experience in competition flying and instructing. He has earned the FAI 3-Diamond badge and 1,000 km Diploma.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Trevor was one half of the New Zealand Gliding Association Technical Committee, being responsible for overseeing all of the operational procedures of the Association.

Trevor’s current flying role is Chief Flying Instructor for the Omarama Gliding Club, where he is often called upon to mentor experienced pilots in developing their mountain flying skills. At the other end of the instructing scale, Trevor helps out with the annual Youth Soaring Development camp at Omarama.

When he is not flying, Trevor monitors the ever increasing demands for more controlled airspace over New Zealand. With a rapacious commercial ATS provider always looking to grab more airspace, Trevor in his role as Chairman of the Gliding New Zealand Airspace Committee, analyses such proposals in detail

22

November 2016–January 2017

and works hard at providing rebuttal evidence, often succeeding in modifying the proposals to minimise their impact on gliding operations. Trevor’s experience as an airline pilot, both in New Zealand and in Europe, equips him well for this airspace committee role, which is very highly valued by fellow glider pilots.

Trevor had his first flight in January 1965, in a K7, at an ATC camp at Thames. “I thought it was the bee’s knees,” he said. Later that year he won a scholarship that allowed him to have 10 hours flying in a Harvard. This obviously cemented his love for aviation and he joined the Air Force, as an Officer Cadet a year later. He joined the Wigram Aviation Sports club and went solo in a glider just before starting his Air Force flight training. “My first trip to Omarama was the following summer. Dick Georgeson was there with his Dart and all the high-altitude gear. It was so exotic. It was like he was an astronaut.”

On completing his Wings course in April ’67, Trevor had a brief operation conversion onto Vampire jets. “They were unbelievably dangerous,” he said. From there, he moved into Sioux helicopters and since you weren’t allowed to fly anything fixed wing during your helicopter training, his gliding suffered. Once

Discussing a task with John Robinson at a competition in Omarama.

May 1965 ATC Scholarship flying a Harvard.

ASW19-1978

Bocian 1967.

Iroquois, Fiji c1970.

Trevor, Sioux, c1968.

Trevor and the insanely dangerous Vampire, Aug '67

he was free to fly gliders again, a stint at the RNZAF Base Auckland Aviation Sports Club, and a Skylark 2 that was a delight to fly, made up for it. “But the next thing I knew I was CFI. And then President. I was about 22.”

Trevor did his first gliding competition in the Skylark 2, BY; he thinks about 1970. “The tasks were seldom more than 100 km and in those days, the trailers followed you out the gate. There were observers at the turn points which were usually by a pub,” Trevor said.

It was some time during this period, while in the Air Force, that Trevor first got involved with air space issues. The Fokker Friendships flying in and out of Whangarei used to fly up and down the coast because they liked it. They would often encounter, and complain about, gliders flying adjacent to their flight path. The military were having similar issues and as a glider pilot, Trevor found himself explaining why the gliders were where

they were. He also made a submission regarding the Queenstown airfield and how the runway alignment was all wrong. It could easily have been changed back then but he was ignored. Now climbing out to the north is problematic due to a hill on track. A realignment of the runway would have eliminated the problem.

1974 saw a big career change for Trevor, moving out of the military and joining the NZ Calibration Flight, flying Fokker Friendship F27s in NZ and the Pacific. Calibration Flights involved checking the accuracy of the navigation aids all around the country. For instance, flying into Queenstown again and again, making sure that all the aids worked. Calibration Flight was based out of Paraparaumu, so Trevor joined the Wellington Gliding Club and the Executive of NZGA (as GNZ was then known). He purchased a K6 BR, which had a 13.5 metre wing and higher wing loading than the more common model.

When modernisation threatened Calibration Flights, Trevor November 2016–January 2017

23

THE PAUL TISSANDIER DIPLOMA

2016 TISSANDIER RECIPIENT

LEMMY TANNER

Enjoy and Learn Advanced Flying with the Wind 304 Pages 22x28 cm 391 Colour photos and drawings

• A “must have” book. Sailplane & Gliding (UK).

• “The book of the Century… You must buy this book, sell whatever it takes, but buy it.”

Gliding International (NZ).

• Unmissable, alongside Reichmann, Bradbury and Moffat.

L’@éroBibliothèque (France).

• Will remain in the history of the literature, perhaps more so than Reichmann.

Volo a Vela (Italy).

• It reveals to you the invisible treasures of the atmosphere.

Alvaro de Orleans Borbón (FAI Vice President).

Price €50 plus postage. Order to info@topfly.aero

24

November 2016–January 2017

Dancing with the wind

A CHRISTMAS GIFT FOR PILOTS?

Jean-Marie Clément

Citation: Lemmy Tanner is a very experienced pilot, from fast jets and heavy helicopters to light aeroplanes and gliders. He has been a keen glider pilot for 60 years; during that time involved in everything from racing in competitions, managing WGC teams, task setting, instructing, to glider towing, and even repairs. He has been chasing the sun for many seasons, spending half a year in the northern hemisphere summer and the other half at Omarama in New Zealand.

At Omarama, Lemmy is well known as the expert weatherman, where on most morning briefings for more than 15 years he has provided a very detailed report on the soaring conditions to be expected on the day, followed by a general prognosis for the days ahead. These briefings are a ‘must go to’ event for the crosscountry glider pilot planning a task. They are absorbed with rapt attention and always end with a round of applause.

But Lemmy’s current devotion to the sport does not end with the weather forecast, for he is the Chief Flying Instructor for Glide Omarama and also a regular tow pilot and general fix-it man.

When the weather is not suitable for soaring, he can generally be found working on a glider, whether it be trouble-shooting a radio or filling an oxygen bottle. His latest Omarama project is to design and build a vacuum chamber to calibrate flight recorders.

Over very many years Lemmy Tanner has served the cause of aviation in general, sporting aviation in particular.

TopFly

started making enquires at Newman Airways. Trevor laughs. “I saw them on the Monday (to make enquiries), was interviewed on the Thursday and offered a job on the Friday. I resigned from Calibration Flights and started with Newman’s four weeks later.”

Newman Airways became Ansett New Zealand a few years later and Trevor stayed through the change. In twenty-four months he had four type ratings, the DASH 7, DASH8, 737 and Bae – 146. “It was professionally interesting,” he said. “But it curtailed gliding.”

He didn’t get back into gliding until 1996, after the Worlds at Omarama. Terry Delore loaned him a LS6 and he re-joined Wigram, just as it was about to become the Omarama Gliding Club.

At Christmas 1999, having flown 7000 hours on the BAe – 146s he was made redundant from Ansett. He took a position with Crossair in Switzerland, flying the later version of the aircraft, the Avro RJ. The local gliding club, which of course he joined, made so much money with its biannual airshow and coffee shop that they had a tax problem, Trevor jokes. It was very well equipped and had nice flying in the Jura Mountains. In the meantime, Swiss Air, the parent company of Crossair, was losing billions of dollars which prompted a move to Go Fly, a low cost British Airways subsidiary based at London Stansted Airport.

The move required a change of type to the Boeing 737-300 series aircraft which he operated throughout Europe and the UK. One of the perks available to “British Airways Staff” was access to discounted travel so Trevor shouted himself a one-way flight to New York on Concorde. Even at the super discounted rate it still cost $1500. The other advantage was the seasonal nature of airline flying in the UK which allowed him to return to NZ during the European winter for extended periods.

Go Fly was bought out by easyJet. “Nothing changed,” Trevor said, “except everything got orange paint. We got tangerined.” They bought Airbus 320 series aircraft, so Trevor added another type rating to his log book. They had flexible employment contracts and were pleased to have people off their payroll for the northern winter. The only drawback was having to do five or six simulator sessions when you got back. Trevor and Jenny were living six months in New Zealand and six months in the UK. “It was the perfect way to move into retirement,” Trevor said.

Flying with the Omarama Gliding Club, Trevor became CFI and kept up his work for GNZ. “With air space, you lose more than you win, but you have to keep trying.” Trevor who has recently become an “A” Cat instructor completely understates the efforts he has put in on behalf of the gliding community over the years and the difference that his involvement has made. He is a very deserving winner of the prestigious Tissandier Diploma.

Dancing with the wind

Jean-Marie Clément

THE PAUL TISSANDIER DIPLOMA

Lemmy Tanner’s introduction to flying was similar to Trevor Mollard’s but his first ride was in a powered craft. At age 15, Grammar school student, Lemmy was on a combined Cadet Force expedition where he was taken for a ten-minute flight in an RAF Dominie Rapide. There were a lot of them around in those days apparently. Unfortunately, Lemmy was green and ill but undeterred. He had a go at gliding, flying in a T21 at Christchurch Air Cadet Gliding School. “In November I celebrated the 60th anniversary of that first glider flight in the very same glider at Lasham,” he said.

He was very keen on gliding and managed to get taken on as a staff cadet at the school. In payment for winch driving, record keeping and other chores, he got one or two flights a weekend and that was Lemmy receiving his diploma from FAI President, Dr John Grubbström enough to get to solo. In the middle of all of that, North Sea for Bristow. It is a wave site and Lemmy was around in at the age of 17 he got an RAF flying scholarship and the early days when wave flying was being explored and becomlearnt to fly Tiger Moths; gaining his flying licence while he was ing popular. He flew to 36,000 feet at Aboyne. Lemmy was also on still at school and well before he had his car licence. the British Gliding Association executive for six years.

The time was the 1950s and conscription was still taking Lemmy became a shareholder in his first glider, a Minimoa, place. Being forced into the Army or Navy held no appeal so he discovered in the back of an RAF hangar in northern Germany signed up for the Air Force. Then conscription stopped but, “I was when he was in the Air Force. The glider had been destined for set on that way of life,” Lemmy said. “I left school on Friday and on the bonfire.

It was rough but he wanted it, paid £28 and came back Monday I was a trainee Air Force pilot.” the following week with a mate in a Tiger Moth that had a tow During the three to four months of his Officer training Lemmy hook.

They put the glider together. It looked all right-ish, so they was flying gliders from the gliding school on site at South Cerney hooked it on and flew it back to their own base (Geilenkirchen) 60 in Gloucestershire (which was the venue for the World Gliding miles south.

Lemmy and his partner repaired it and flew it for two Champs a few years later in 1965). Once into flying training with years before they were transferred away.

After a checkered life, the Air Force he flew the Jet Provost, their first trainer, moving where it gained in value (at one time selling for US$25,000), it is into Vampires, Canberra Bombers and Victor Tankers. He left the now residing in the Schempp Hirth Museum.

Air Force in 1971.

Champion English pilot Justin Wills is a long term friend and A huge change occurred. With no civilian fixed wing jobs when Justin bought Irishman Creek in NZ, he told Lemmy that NZ available he joined Bristow Helicopters, a firm just expanding into was somewhere he just had to fly. “I couldn’t get enough time off,” servicing the North Sea oil rigs. Lemmy stayed with Bristow for Lemmy said.

“I told him it would have to wait until retirement.” In thirty years. It wasn’t all helicopters. Bristow sent him to Nigeria 1998 he did make it here, staying with Justin and meeting Gavin for nine months where he flew Islanders and took up the previWills.

It was the start of a long relationship and he now spends six ously despised sport of golf. “There was nothing else to do. No months in the UK and six months here at Omarama, flying, and gliding. I flew a regular run that left either morning or afternoon. weather forecasting for Gavin and Glide Omarama.

“What else were you supposed to do for the rest of the day?” He Meteorology is something that just came with flying he says. came home for a month’s leave, but had barely got back to England “You need to know what’s happening in the air. I got into looking when the company asked him to do the helicopter instructor at how weather worked.”

He did a bit of forecasting for gliding course. “Which I did.” He eventually became a Training Captain clubs, particularly when related to wave.

“When I came out here and Instrument Rating Examiner.

Gavin was doing forecasts which I could improve on. I’ve been Bristow sent him to the Falklands. In 1984, with the war over, doing it, all over, ever since.”

By ‘all over’ Lemmy means here, the the military couldn’t cope with the volume of work needed. “I UK, and America and Canada.

While he spends six months of the was delivering supplies to military outposts – food, ammunition, year here, the other six months aren’t all spent in the UK. fuel, that sort of thing.” He found it fascinating. “The wildlife was He’s shocked, and delighted to receive the Tissandier diploma. completely unafraid of people.” He came back to England and “I’ve always considered it a very prestigious award, and to receive back to the normal routine of flying out to the oil rigs. All up, he it from New Zealand is a real surprise.”

He smiles when he says, “I flew Sikorsky S61s for more than twenty years, gaining 15,000 didn’t think I’d been here long enough.” hours in helicopters.

Lemmy has his inspector ticket and loves tinkering with Lemmy finished his time with Bristow back in Africa, on things around gliders. He also takes it upon himself to keep the contract to the United Nations, flying in the Central African Glide Omarama staff house and yard neat and tidy, repairing Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo, “which was frozen pipes and doing whatever is needed. With 6,000 or more most undemocratic.” hours in gliders, he has no intention of sitting back and taking Through all this time, when possible, weekends were for things easy.

“While I’m fit and capable, I’ll stay instructing and gliding. Lemmy has been CFI of several clubs and flown at many, towing.”

And he might play a little bit of golf. mentioning Husbands Bosworth in England and Dee Side and Aboyne in Scotland. Aboyne was his base while flying over the November 2016–January 2017

25

Six Soaring Sailplanes in Portmoak – Scotland Photo Alex McCaw

26

November 2016–January 2017

November 2016–January 2017

27

EL

– for Electric

BY BERNARD ECKEY

It is no longer a secret that the electric revolution is in full swing in the car industry. Electric cars have come of age and inquisitive glider pilots, myself included, are keen to know whether this also applies to light aircraft and to gliders in particular. Coincidently, during my recent trip to Germany, the spectacular ‘Solar Impulse’ completed its successful flight around the world - another good reason for putting this investigation on my to-do-list.

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November 2016–January 2017

The ever-cheerful Mac Ichikawa helping with take-off preparations

The engine instrument displays all relevant information

A

t last year’s AERO Trade Fair, a trend towards electrically powered light aircraft was clear and by all accounts, it has gathered more momentum since. And for good reasons.

Such aircraft are environmentally friendly, unbelievably quiet, low on maintenance and often less costly to operate. Recent advances in battery technology are nothing short of breathtaking, although the energy density of even the most efficient batteries just cannot be compared to petrol. However, electric propulsion systems are ideal for applications with short duty cycles (such as basic training or aerobatic flying) and are therefore conquering an ever-increasing share of the market. And doesn’t exactly the same apply to gliding? We also require power for only a short period of time, either to avoid an out landing or to get airborne in the first place, and it is therefore no wonder that most manufacturers are working hard to add an electric powered version to their fleet of motorised gliders.

I was therefore astonished to find, while discussing the issue with European gliding insiders, that the initial enthusiasm for electrically powered self-launchers is clearly diminishing. Their high-power requirements necessitate a big and heavy electric motor, plus heavy, large capacity batteries; with the combined weight penalty not only causing handling issues on the ground and in the air, they also restrict the range of available wing loadings. After a typical self-launch, the battery capacity is often reduced to a point where a self-retrieve becomes questionable and where a powered flight home (in case thermals collapse earlier than expected) is no longer possible.

However, the situation is fundamentally different if

Location of battery pack in the front of the engine bay

self-launching isn’t a requirement and the motor is only used to get home or out of trouble. In this case, the entire battery capacity is still available for a self-retrieve and the drive system can be kept lighter, smaller and simpler.

This is exactly what the engineering team of the ASG 32 El has focused on and what Schleicher is now introducing. Needless to say, I jumped at the chance to test-fly this new glider and see how the system performs in practice. However, when my day to fly the glider finally arrived the weather was anything but ideal and, to make matters worse, I was told that Mac Ichikawa was waiting to take the prototype away for the world comps in Lithuania. Thankfully Mac agreed to let me have a flight first with young development engineer Paul Anklam in the back seat.

Straight after our release from tow, Paul said “Master on, power lever up and press the red button when the engine instrument indicates that everything is ready.” The engine bay doors opened without delay. The motor popped up and automatically developed full power promptly and smoothly but without any noticeable change in pitch. “For the most efficient climb, you better slow down to about 50 to 55 knots now,” Paul remarked, “and then adjust the power to 27 kW.” “Even I can do that,” I replied, and after a small power reduction both varios were reading just under 4 knots up. Not surprisingly there was no noise, apart from a pleasant humming sound coming off the propeller. I very much doubt whether anyone on the ground would have noticed the motor glider just 1000 feet overhead. Paul didn’t even have to raise his voice when he said “If you want to retract the motor again, just push the power lever all the way down.”

November 2016–January 2017

29

EL – FOR ELECTRIC

Just for the fun of it I ran the motor with different power settings a few times and enjoyed the almost unbelievable, smooth and quiet operation. Then it was time to put the ‘get out of jail card’ away again. After closing the ‘throttle’, I kept one eye on the mirror and observed the propeller slowing down, automatically moving into a vertical position and disappearing again. “That’s too easy” I remarked.

Paul replied enthusiastically. “With a 27 kW power setting and with two people on board the ASG 32 El climbs between 1.5 and 2 m/s. At this power setting we get a full 20 minutes of engine running time out of a fully charged battery and the range is 100 km when using the saw tooth method. Best of all, with an electric motor, the power reduction at altitude is negligible.”

By now we were under a suspiciously dark spot of an otherwise overcast sky. To our surprise, the varios came alive again and soon we were climbing without the help of the motor. As an Open Class pilot, I’m certainly not spoiled when it comes to a fast roll rate but the ASG 32 features an agility and control harmony that I have never before experienced with any other 20m glider.

The reason is the new and innovative control mixer, which is providing a previously unknown method of integrating flaps with ailerons. The outer flaperons extend over 48% of the wingspan but, in spite of this, the stick forces remain pleasantly low and make flying this surprisingly docile glider almost effortless.

Another pleasant surprise is the excellent feedback from the air and the aircraft’s ability to point its pilot into the better part of the thermal. Without doubt this glider is another masterpiece from designer Michael Greiner, already a household name in gliding circles for his ASG 29.

Knowing that Mac Ichikawa and his young Australian travel companion were waiting we decided to land but not before testing the motor a few more times. Its intuitive control system makes

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November 2016–January 2017

using this power plant a real pleasure. Engine management hardly adds to the pilot’s workload and couldn’t be easier, thanks to a degree of automation impossible to achieve with combustion engines! After just a briefing, or a short demonstration, even lowexperience pilots can safely operate this powered glider without any stress at all. It is also the long awaited answer for clubs with competitively minded pilots! For the first time ever, they have access to a performance orientated and motorized two-seater that can put members on the podium and is also perfect for coaching, long distance flying and record attempts. Without doubt, the integration of the new electric drive unit into this proven airframe is a big step forward for the entire gliding movement!

Back on the ground, the young development engineer explained that quite a number of reputable companies helped to bring this new drive concept to fruition, a fact that Schleicher openly acknowledges by putting the logos of all these organisations on the fin of the ASG 32 El prototype.

In contrast to other electrically powered gliders, the 67 kg Lithium-Ion battery pack of the ASG 32 El is located in the engine bay of the fuselage. There it is easily accessible and lengthy cables with heavy-duty electrical connectors are no longer required. It also keeps the weight of the wings at manageable levels and still allows the installation of the same water ballast system that is fitted to other variants of the same model. With 120 litres of water in the wings (plus 5 litres in the tail tank) the wing loading can be increased to 54.1 kg/m² - by far the highest in its class.

Starting with a clean sheet of paper allowed the development team to implement a few additional special features. At the top of the list is a fully certified, all-up weight of 850 kg, a whopping 50 kg more than any other 20m glider. A maximum load of 120 kg per seat is also previously unheard of and so are the cockpit dimensions. Even extra large and 2-metre tall pilots can enjoy long

EL – FOR ELECTRIC After just a briefing, or a short demonstration, even low-experience pilots can safely operate this powered glider without any stress at all.

It is also the long awaited answer for clubs with competitively minded pilots!

cross-country flights in absolute comfort. An in-flight adjustable backrest for the front seat is just as much standard as an antifogging system for both cockpits and automatic control connections.

Occupant safety ranked just as high on the list of priorities.

As an example, the latest CS 22 cockpit crashworthiness requirements of 9 g (formerly 6 g) have already been implemented and all remaining elements of the renowned Schleicher safety cockpit were also integrated. Thanks to the forward placement of the main wheel the glider has no tendency to put the nose on the ground, even at maximum power or wheel brake application. This has allowed the elimination of a draggy nose wheel and together with other aerodynamic refinements, such as the optionally available, retractable tail wheel, the glider features the cleanest fuselage of any two-seater currently on the market. Competition feedback indicates that this might contribute to the ASG 32s superior high-speed performance.

In summary, there is now a new entry in the 20m two-seater FAI class. It is called ASG 32 and it comes in three different versions, namely a pure sailplane, a self-launcher and an electric sustainer (or ‘turbo’). No wonder it has already taken over as the most dominant aircraft on the Schleicher production line.

Flight Screen

Full-featured Club STF vario systems with wind information ADC + Digital Display: US$1,450 ADC+ Analog Display: US$1,550

Schleicher openly acknowledges contributions by putting the logos of all these organisations on the fin

High contrast high resolution display shows all critical flight data without the need to switch screens

Thermal Assist Screen**

Display Units Only Digital: US$550 Analog: US$650

XC license adds a secure flight recorder*, Thermal Assistant screen, navigation tools, and serial data communication with third party devices US$600 NZ Agent: Roger Sparks | Mobile 0274 956 560 | Email r.sparks@xtra.co.nz

November 2016–January 2017

31

GP GLIDERS The Future of Gliding

Polish company GP Gliders, based in an area known as Aviation Valley, in South Eastern Poland, famous for its aerospace industry and pilot training centres, has designed their own electric sailplane from the ground up, incorporating the latest design, technology, materials and safety features.

The future of soaring is electric and it’s coming very soon.

T

he self-launching electric sailplane will allow unparalleled freedom and independence for the glider pilot.

This will generate a need for change in the way gliding is conducted whilst finally making soaring a carbon neutral sport. A number of manufacturers have been exploring this new technology and applying it to their sailplane designs.

GP Gliders however have produced a unique glider, using the latest technology, with unparalleled performance and safety.

Electric power offers some substantial advantages over traditional internal combustion engines: ›› Much simplified and less pilot intensive operation means safer flying ›› A smaller, lighter, yet more powerful power plant gives greatly increased reliability compared to internal combustion engines ›› No need for messy, flammable, fuel on board therefore the risk of fire is virtually eliminated ›› Full power available on start up with no warm up required ›› Power output unaffected by attitude ›› Almost no noise ›› No need for headset when motor is in use ›› No vibration ›› Virtually zero maintenance ›› True carbon neutral capability ›› Ability to re charge directly from solar panels on your hangar or trailer equals potentially zero cost flying

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November 2016–January 2017

With a range of 13.5 metre and 15 metre pure and electric self-launching sailplanes, plus dedicated trailers, all with a large range of options, GP Gliders is set to become a niche player in the sailplane market.

GP Gliders chief designer is Grzegorz Peszke. The Peszke company is a producer of aviation products, including high performance propellers, light sport airplanes and gliders based in Krosno, Poland. Founded in 2007, the company has substantial expertise in the use of composite technology and aero structure design. Grzegorz Peszke is an experienced designer, constructor and competitor.

He has set records in Radio Controlled Thermal Soaring in the F3B class.

Peszke says, “I designed the GP series to be innovative in every way. I want to produce a totally new glider that gives pilots what they need and want.”

Grzegorz’s son and managing director of GP Gliders Jerzy said, “The idea to build a light, dynamic glider came about a few years back when we caught wind of the FAI’s plans to introduce a new class. This class will have essentially only two limitations – maximum wingspan of 13.5 m and maximum wing load of 35 kg/m2. We think that this class has enormous potential for growth, and it creates new possibilities both for pilots and for small producers like us.”

Continuing, Jerzy says, “World Champion Sebastian Kawa has joined GP Gliders in the very important

role of technical consultant during development work on our constructions.

This allows us to take advantage of his immense expertise and experience.

In addition, Sebastian will also act as GP Gliders ambassador, promoting our gliders … around the world.”

The Institute of Aviation in Warsaw is engaged in the design of GP Gliders and their laboratory facilities have helped immensely in selecting the optimal aerodynamic and structural solutions, and most helpful of all have been their comprehensive testing facilities. This provides the confidence that GP Gliders have selected the best possible solutions to ensure their glider’s competitive edge, as well as the cohesiveness of the concept.

Currently GP Gliders has three models. The pure sailplane, GP11 PULSE, a purpose designed single seater that can take its pilot into cross country flying safely with docile handling.

The GP14 electric, self-launching, sailplane is a high performance 13.5 metre model which is available in both standard and slim fuselage options. The GP14 VELO sailplane is designed to be the ultimate expression of innovation and performance in the 13.5 metre class, for which an equally innovative and performance-minded self-launch system has been designed. An L/D of 43:1 combined with a wing loading of between 35 - 55 kg/m2 and an aspect ratio of 26 ensures excellent performance.

Featuring a 25 kW motor as

Sebastian Kawa demonstrates how light the wings are.

standard, a 4 kWH battery will deliver three 1,600 feet climbs OR one 1,600 feet climb + 100 km in-flight range.

Speaking about the GP14 VELO glider Jerzy explains, “The glider was created using the most modern 3D design methods available, as well as exclusive CNC machines during modelling. We also refused to make any compromises in aerodynamics, the elliptic wings and tailplane contain sophisticated outlines, as well as the most efficient and adjustablespan profiles created by Grzegorz.

“The manufacturing technology is based on the best composite materials available, including carbon fibre, kevlar, rohacell foam and newestgeneration epoxies which ensure the best durability/load ratio.”

“The glider’s structure is also highly temperature-resistant, which allows us to offer a wide range of interesting exterior colour schemes rather than just the traditional white paint. You could even use gliders as advertising space for event sponsors. This would be a significant innovation and also provide us with a large competitive edge.”

Finally, the GP15 JETA is their first 15 metre sailplane and again is designed to provide the highest level of performance ever seen in a 15 metre glider. This is also available in both standard and slim fuselage options and features the 25 kW motor with 4 kW battery pack.

The GP15 JETA is the most sophisticated, multitask 15 metre, electric

self-launcher to date. Strongly focused on gliding performance, the design represents natural evolution of flawless GP14 VELO platform, adopting the very sleek fuselage.

As with the GP14 the RESLS (Retractable Electric Self Launching System) takes only five seconds from deployment to start and power is instant thanks to the electric motor. In addition, from motor off to retraction and stowage, is also only five seconds.

The highlights of the JETA are an aspect ratio of 29, unseen before in 15 metre glider class, and a best L/D of over 50:1 (slim fuselage version) with a wing loading of 33 – 60 kg/m2. The new glider is a further step forward in terms of aerodynamic efficiency and use of carbon-epoxy composite technologies.

The option of electric controlled flaps on the GP14 and the GP15 add another exciting feature to these gliders.

All models are designed with the latest safety features incorporated, including a carbon/kevlar/vectran cockpit safety shell and a ballistic recovery rescue system.

With a process of continued development the young team at GP Gliders are focusing on producing the finest sailplanes, using the latest technology and materials, whilst at the same time giving pilots what they want.

For further information contact: Southern Energy Sailplanes E: gpglidersausnz@gmail.com T: +61 (0)419 001 769 W: www.gpgliders.com

Exclusive Agents Australia & New Zealand Southern Energy Sailplanes John Styles gpgliderausnz@gmail.com

+61 (0) 419 001 769 Web:

www.gpgliders.com

November 2016–January 2017

33

Youth Glide Mini Camp

GREYTOWN

BY KIM READ AND TIM TARBOTTON

The first Greytown Soaring Centre, Youth Glide, Mini Camp was held over the long Labour Weekend break. The camp was organised

by YGNZ Vice President, Tim Tarbotton and the previous YGNZ President, Jordan Kerr.

T

im said it was a weekend of hard work and determination.

“With four gliders and a hardworking team of instructors and supporters we achieved far more than expected; it was successful beyond our wildest dreams.”

Nine students attended the camp, two from Tauranga, two from the Hawke's Bay and five from Wellington. Nolan Cockburn from Tauranga, Nick Moore from Wellington and Allie Thompson from Hawkes Bay got their winch ratings, Maria Cramp from Wellington went on her first solo, Charlie-Kern-Smith from Wellington completed his A Certificate, while Laura Wagstaff from Tauranga, Josh Ferguson from Hawkes Bay, Bridget Allan and Sam Taylor from Wellington all made great progress

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November 2016–January 2017

towards their Solo Pilot and A Certificate qualifications. Great efforts everyone.

CFI Mark Wilson, assisted by his local team of instructors including Stewart Barton, Kevin Clarke, David Hirst, Michael O’Donnell and also Graham White from Hawkes Bay did a fantastic job at helping the students set realistic goals and working with them to achieve them. The new Skylaunch winch proved its worth and the team of winch drivers, led by Tony van Dyk and assisted by Martyn Cook, Grae Harrison, Chris Moss and Tony Passmore, set a new site record for the most winches in one day with 38 launches on the Saturday. A total of 109 winch launches were made over the three days, proving the worth of using the winch for future larger camps at this fantastic site.

“There was more to this camp than just the gliding,” Tim says. “Staying at ‘JRville’, the neighbouring accommodation across from the airfield, students spent a lot of time on the flight simulator, trying to fly inverted through the hangars at Omarama, enjoyed a late-night river swim and camp fire fun, along with delicious home cooked meals.”

“With four gliders and a hardworking team of instructors and supporters we achieved far more than expected; it was

successful beyond our wildest dreams.”

Congratulations to Nick for going solo on the winch

Congratulations to Nolan for going solo on the winch

Congratulations to Allie for going solo on the winch

Grae Harrison, President of the GSC, says the success of the first flying camp cements the Centre’s determination to focus on youth gliding. “The Centre has had a debrief and feedback from the students on how the next camp and Youth Gliding in 2017 can be enhanced. We will take this information and work it into the format of our Youth Glide programme for 2017.”

The Soaring Centre will also look at how to get students from the local colleges in the region involved in youth glide activities. “With Gliding Wairarapa,” Grae says, “some students at Kuranui College in Greytown already take part in the National Certificate in Aviation Level 2 and we’d like more colleges to offer this to their students.”

Local accommodation facilities, excellent catering and a variety of non-flying activities made for a fun filled and highly successful camp. A huge thanks to all involved.

A total of 109 winch launches were made over the three days,

proving the worth of using the winch for future larger camps at this fantastic site.

November 2016–January 2017

35

THE HEIGHT OF IMPOSSIBILI

Gliding Hawkes Bay & Waipukurau club patron Doug Honnor has written an historical note about one of his early training flights.

B

ack in the mid 1970s, having just commenced my training and feeling somewhat nervous and dubious about whether I had left this new gliding venture too late, on what was probably my third launch in a K-13, the instructor gave me the command to pull the rope release knob. I did and nothing happened! So I pulled it again and again, hard.

Then we were both repeatedly tugging at it while the Pawnee tug kept on climbing. Then the instructor exclaimed, "Ah - we have a problem." I thought this was an understatement!

The instructor then carried out a strange manoeuvre to endeavour to fly out alongside the tug and wave our wings. By this time I was plain terrified! I didn’t know that this was the signal to tell the tug the glider can't release. However, the tug pilot remained oblivious and kept climbing and approaching cloud base (maybe dreaming of getting more hours up).

Meanwhile my instructor again tried releasing and I made a fervent promise that if this new-chum ever survived, I would never again leave mother-earth. It seemed like an age, but probably just some minutes, when bingo, the rope departed. Whew!

The rest of the flight was completed uneventfully other than me recovering in mild shock.

I must also stress that back then we had no glider-tug radio

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November 2016–January 2017

communication. From memory, the power planes/tugs had VHF but our gliders that had radio were on HF, hence the need for signals. There was also a large arrow laid out on the vector each day to warn other aircraft of active gliding operations.

Once back on terra-firma, there was much very serious ongoing investigation by the hierarchy, instructors, engineers etc. Later, after plenty of release assembly testing, it was reported to be in perfectly good order. Besides, the K-13 (KA) was a lovely, near new glider.

What could have caused this mysterious event? Further along the belly, far from the nose release, there was situated an open-type hook called a bungee-hook. The diagnosis was, that somehow at release, the rope-rings must have flailed/whipped across the bungee hook, catching and while there was tension they remained secure. Eventually at some stage when the rope became slack, it simply fell away. When you look at the distance, configuration from nose hook to bungee hook, such event should be impossible. How on earth could such a freak event happen? No other such K-13 event ever happened in NZ and I wonder if any occurred overseas? I am doubtful, very doubtful. But as

IBILITY

GLIDING BOOK CORNER

BY DOUG HONNOR

Lately two new gliding books have come on the market. we say in aviation: "There is a first time for everything."

A good moral to remember.

So the bungee hooks were cut off both our Club's K-13s.

Problem sorted.

Now some of you may wonder about the bungee hooks.

They were part of the manufacture at the time where in various parts of the world, manual launching was popular and cheap. It needs a nice gentle slope into wind where a team run out a long bungee with its other end attached to the said hook. The glider is restrained with the main wheel in a dip and when the tension reaches maximum, the wheel pops out of the dip and the glider rapidly twanged into the wind and the slack attachment falls away. Whoopee!! (check Google) Foot note: I broke my promise to stay on Mother-earth and was still flying gliders, several types and many places, 35 years later. That instructor is also still amongst us!

“That instructor” (Brian Kelly) notes that, as an explanation for the cause of the rope hang up, the early sailplanes used to have a curved hook attached just under the nose as a bungee hook. In the early days, a large stretchy rope was used to launch gliders from a hill. The rope was run out both sides of the hook and people would take each end and run back, stretching the rope, just like a rubber band. At the appropriate tension, the people holding the glider back would let go and the glider would be shot forward over the edge of the hill. The club’s early gliders came with these bungee hooks attached. Immediately after the above incident, a hacksaw was found and the hooks removed. This prevented the incident from occurring again.

The first one is the new English version of the popular “Rhoen-Adler” book by Peter Selinger. On 340 pages, it features all gliders ever built by Schleicher with many photos and a detailed descriptions of every model - often even including drawings.

It is now fully up-to-date and even includes the latest Schleicher models, namely the ASG 29, ASH 30, ASH 31 and ASG 32 with all of their variants. (http://www. schleicher-buch.de/) Also hot off the press is the fourth edition of Bernard Eckey’s book “Advanced Soaring Made Easy”. It is updated and extended and now contains 432 pages, 187 illustrations and 176 photographs.

New topics have been included, the structure of the book has changed, the page layout and graphics are much improved, the text has been revised or extended throughout and the quality of many new photographs is simply spectacular.

Advanced Soaring Made Easy has been translated into French, under the title “Maitriser le vol à voile” (ISBN 978-0-9807349-3-5). The Japanese version published in September as an e-book and is now available from Amazon. A Spanish translation is currently also in preparation.

Interested pilots can obtain a copy directly from www.future-aviation.com, where you will find an order form and an extensive description of each of the 12 chapters.

For quantity orders, you can contact the distributor directly on: jo@jolanoe.com.

Tales of love, misadventure and high jinks from a life of medicine, aviation and hunting. A cracking read with surprising depth by an eccentric Kiwi icon.

November 2016–January 2017

37

THE VINTAGE AND CLASSIC GLIDER CLUB OF NZ

An Update and Launch of the Vintage Kiwi

ARCHIVE SECTION

BY ROGER BROWN

‘Vintage Kiwi’ has now been in existence, as an incorporated society, for some 10 years.

However, we really started in 2003, when our founder Ian Dunkley sent out an open invitation for interested people to come to Taupo, go flying and discuss the possibility of forming a Vintage Gliding organisation such as they have in England. As NZ has very few true vintage gliders as such, it was decided to expand the parameter and accept the ‘older’ generation of Glass sailplanes (the criteria was 25 years from conception) to make up the numbers.

‘Vintage Kiwi’ is an active flying and historical society which also describes our objectives.

A

s many are already aware, we hold a flying rally each year at different venues around the country; most recently at Springfield and returning via Nelson Lakes.

March 2017 will see us at Taumarunui. Because we are a glider club (made up of privately owned Vintage and Classic Class sailplanes) and not a gliding club as such, we fly under the supervision of a host club at these venues.

However, what is not generally known is that ‘Vintage Kiwi’ has always had a very active archive section that has been quietly recording and storing NZ gliding’s historical past for some years. This material has been stored at various members’

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November 2016–January 2017

The new archives room

houses in different parts of the country, which although considered safe, meant they were not easily accessible. Now, due to our very good relationship with the Classic Flyers Museum in Tauranga, ‘Vintage Kiwi’ has been given a central base to work from and we are now an active part of the Classic Flyers Archive section. To that end, we share a large purpose built archives room with the ever-expanding gliding section being managed by Peter Layne, one of NZ’s foremost Aviation Historians. This gives ‘Vintage Kiwi’ the ability to archive and safely store NZ gliding‘s very rich history at one secure location. So far we have traced the NZ gliding family tree back to the very early 1900s. However, as a good example of history being rediscovered, ‘Vintage Kiwi’ has recently come across a 22 metre two-seater sailplane up north at Ruawai, which had been designed and built by a farmer in the early 1950s. No one, other than the locals ever knew about it and certainly not the authorities. It even had a variable incidence main wing that was adjustable in flight, along with some other highly advanced thinking which was well ahead of its time. Now that is gliding history.

Amongst items already received, ‘Vintage Kiwi’ has a number of very old films that have been copied into a modern digital format. These will shortly be available for viewing from our new website, along with some many hundreds of now digitised photographs. The ‘Vintage Kiwi’ archive section have also collated and safely stored all the NZ gliding publications / manuals (both past and present) for future reference. These publications also give us a very good historical ‘flow chart’ of how our sport in NZ has evolved and changed over the years.

We have also archived and stored a great many other historical items and documents as they came to hand, either from past members of NZGA / Gliding NZ, or administrators of estates, saving them from being lost forever.

Everyone should have some understanding of their own family tree and gliding is no different.

We know what we do now is the very result of our historic past. Dick Georgeson’s pioneering flights in the South Island wave systems is a great example of this. We all now fly wave as a matter of course. Far more recently, people flying the West coast of the North Island along the sand dunes and cliff faces in a decent westerly is also the direct result of someone successfully pioneering that ‘run’. This has opened a whole new world for everyone else to experience. All that is part of our gliding history.

We now fly some very exotic sailplanes with some truly amazing performance envelopes that can be traced back through many decades of design developments. Even today’s high performance sailplanes will no doubt be seen at some time in the future as quite a basic package, in the same way that we may now regard our older fleet. A Skylark 2 was once considered to be the very best of handling and performance that money could buy. It’s worth remembering that the ASH 25 is now very close to being a 30 year old design and in a few short years can be considered – ‘vintage’. Today’s activities will become part of tomorrow’s history. That is why it is very important not to lose that sense of our historic past that has helped create the aircraft and knowledge that we all now take for granted.

The Vintage Kiwi archive section would therefore love to hear from the gliding community of any gliding memorabilia / photographs / films or even the odd sailplane that might be considered worth saving, so that part of our unique history will be never be lost. All items passed on to the ‘Vintage Kiwi’ organisation are consented on a Long Term Loan basis to either the Classic Flyers Museum or The Ashburton Museum, if accepted. These articles will be returned whenever a request is made.

‘Vintage Kiwi’ now has six sailplanes on permanent display at the Classic Flyers museum in Tauranga; each one unique in so far as our gliding history is concerned. These are sailplanes that for various reasons will never fly again and for that reason alone could have been lost forever, housed in some forgotten glider trailer somewhere in NZ, slowly dying. One of these sailplanes on display still holds a couple of records of flights flown by women for distance and height which remain unchallenged to this day. This depository could, over time, become the main source of reference for this great sport of ours, but it does need your support in the recapturing and the securing of that history before it is lost forever to leave big gaps in the family tree.

THE VINTAGE KIWI TEAM

You can contact the ‘Vintage Kiwi’ Archive Section by contacting Peter Layne: laynefam@ihug.co.nz

November 2016–January 2017

39

UK Juniors Wave Camp

PORTMOAK – SCOTLA

BY ALEX MCCAW

New Zealand pilots Nicholas Oakley and Alex McCaw are doing their ‘OE’ in the UK. Both young men have two year visas to work in the UK, are gainfully employed and enjoying exploring Europe on their days off. Photos from weekends in Prague and Paris make those at home jealous. Nick and Alex represented New Zealand at the World Champs in Lithuania this year and intend to return there next July for the Junior Worlds. In the meantime, they are keeping their soaring skills current all over the UK. In October, they joined the UK Juniors for a weekend wave soaring at the Scotland Gliding Centre at Portmoak, in Scotland.

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November 2016–January 2017

T

he UK Juniors run a series of three ‘mini camps’ over the winter called the Winter Series. Junior pilots from all over the UK meet for a long weekend of fun flying and to keep current during the winter. The aim of the Portmoak camp is for the pilots to try ridge and wave flying. The final event of the series is in the spring, when pilots attempt to get their FAI Silver badge done before the soaring season really begins.

Nick and I were kindly invited to join the UK Juniors at their camp at Portmoak, about a 30-minute drive north of Edinburgh.

It was a great weekend and the weather really turned it on for us with some good wave and ridge conditions. The Juniors did a great job of organising two seat gliders and a bunch of single seaters for everyone to fly. I was luckily enough to have a great wave flight in an ASH-25 up to almost Inverness and back while Nick had a good play in a Duo and an ASW-20. It was great to have a play in the Scotland wave and see the Highlands from the air. The wave was strong in places and it was easy to get to 15,000 feet. The wave was limited to smallish areas however and the sort of energy lines one might fly along in New Zealand

Photo Alex McCaw

Photo Alex McCaw

Photo Alex McCaw

TLAND

Photo Alex McCaw

didn’t seem to exist. A more ‘climb and glide’ approach was used for cross country flying.

I also managed to walk up the ridge at Portmoak and get some photos of the guys playing around on the ridge. Although much smaller than most of the New Zealand ridges, there was a lot of fun had by all. I’ll let my photos tell the story.

A big part of the Winter Series is the great social scene that makes everyone feel welcome and enjoy themselves, with many late nights at the bar telling stories of flying. What I really love about gliding is the people you meet and the friends you make from all around the world. It really feels like a big family; even on the other side of the world it still feels the same.

November 2016–January 2017

41

Youth Glide

WHERE ARE THEY? SoaringNZ gets in touch with some graduates of our Youth Glide programme…

Wickham

Scott Wagstaff My interest in aviation started back when I was about eight or nine. Dad used to stick me in the back seat of a glider (generally sitting on a couple of pillows) and take me flying out of Tauranga. I was hooked. For my 12th birthday I was given a logbook and a trial flight to kick off my training which I took to like a duck to water. I’d head over to the airfield most weekends and work my way through the syllabus. At about the age of 13 ½ I went solo on a still, slightly overcast, evening with my parents watching on anxiously.

Since then I’ve continued training out of Tauranga with the odd cross-country flight out of Matamata and Taupo to keep me keen and eager to push on with the training. In 2011 I attended the first youth glide camp as a shy student, not knowing where I was going/staying, let alone the people that were going to be there. After a few days of meeting and greeting and doing a few flights to get to know the area, I was away. By the end of the camp I’d achieved roughly 18 hours of flight time and made lifetime friends.

The following year I attended the camp again, continuing in my training and completing my cross-country syllabus with a few outstanding flights across the lower South Island.

A little over a year ago, I completed my C Cat. instructor rating and have been putting that to good use when I

Scott Wagstaff

can, with a mixture of trial flights, small cross-country training flights and general training in the club.

I was extremely lucky and managed to land myself an apprenticeship as an Aircraft Engineer, straight out of school.

Solo Wings is a company in Tauranga who maintain bits of everything, from Cessnas, vintage aircraft, gyros, Piper aircraft, right through to an L39. The apprenticeship takes about five years and I’m about to complete my third year. Throughout my apprenticeship, I’ve been lucky enough to fly a variety of aircraft. There’s been a bunch of different Cessnas, Yak 52, a large variety of microlights and LSAs and a L39 which would have to take the cake by far. I’m thoroughly enjoying my job, learning all aspects of engineering, maintenance and how aviation works, from gliding through GA and up to a commercial level.

After completing my training I’d like to get into gliding a bit more, competing

in a few competitions both in the North and South Island and I want to do my PPL and CPL down the track. Hopefully having an engineering ticket and a CPL to my name I’ll be able to travel overseas for a bit, working and gaining experience within the aviation community.

I can certainly say, once you’ve been exposed to aviation in a couple of different ways, you become hooked and find it hard to keep away from it. I’ll be striving to go further forward with my career as an engineer, and some day, a commercial level pilot, ticking off my goals as I go.

Troy Glover Troy Glover was one of the original members of Youth Glide Canterbury, joining Roger Read’s first camp in 2008 (before the large Youth Soaring Development Camps kicked off).

The fourteen year old was already passionately involved in aviation and it was obvious that one day he’d be flying for a living. Youth Glide and soaring played a small but important part in his career path.

My interest in aviation started with a 15 minute trial flight through the local microlight club in Rangiora (C.R.A.C.) when I was 12 years old. The club instructor on that day, Ross Marfell (a retired RNZAF avionics technician and glider pilot) kindly took me under his wing.

I spent the next five years working

Just another day at the office.

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November 2016–January 2017

for the microlight club each Sunday, sweeping hangars, washing aircraft and cleaning the clubrooms in exchange for flying time. I spent a lot of time flying with Ross who trained me up to the solo stage years before I turned 16. Eager to fly solo, Ross suggested glider flying as an interim solution. That Christmas I joined Ross in Omarama for the Canterbury Gliding Club’s Xmas Camp, where it just so happened, Roger Read (an ex RNZAF pilot and current Air New Zealand pilot) had just started up a Youth Glide group with the goal of introducing young people to the joys of flight and soaring. I learnt a lot flying with Roger during that holiday period and went solo that summer at age 14. The following year, after Ross had taught me how to drive, I drove his car to Omarama and he flew (saving a return trip).

One the day of my 16th birthday, at Rangiora Airfield, I went solo in Ross’s Pioneer 300 and the club’s Rans S6. I had become well known to many members as 'The Cleaning Boy' and really appreciated the effort everyone put in to come out to the club that day, to celebrate my birthday and support me in my first powered solo flight and help make my day even more memorable. That summer I flew Ross’s 300 to Omarama and he drove.

Fast forwarding a couple of years to finishing my final year of school at Mt Aspiring College in Wanaka, I felt some pressure to go to university and follow the norm. It’s what’s expected of students today, but nothing interested me like aviation did. I just couldn’t see myself doing anything else. Aviation is unique.

I chose Nelson Aviation College, (NAC) moved to Motueka and began training towards becoming a commercial pilot.

After my training was complete, I waited six months for a potential instructing role at NAC. Unfortunately this did not eventuate, but I was prepared. I had spent those last six months working at Hellers Small Goods in Christchurch, working six days a week, starting at 4 am. During this time, I transferred my commercial pilot licence to the Australian equivalent and had saved enough money to travel independently to Australia in search of work.

Five weeks later I found myself on

Troy Glover on far left. Original Canterbury Youth Glide pilots, January 2008

the Indian Pacific train, settling in for a 17 hour train ride into the desert towards my first flying job, working at Rawlinna, the world’s largest sheep station. Primarily, I was a station hand and secondly a pilot. Some of the tasks on the station were: pulling bores, water runs, mustering, droving, lamb marking, shearing and slaughtering etc. In the aircraft, my job was to grid the paddock with GPS, spot sheep and guide ground crew on bikes towards sheep via radio. Initially the work load really blew me away as there is a lot you have to juggle, all whilst at low level, in the intense heat and dust of the day.

Rawlinna Station covers 2.5 million acres with 65,000 sheep, all of which I saw from the ground and air. For my 100 hourly maintenance trips, I travelled about 450 nm across the Nullarbor Plain. There was never a dull moment on the station.

Early one morning I evacuated a shearer with 3rd degree burns to the upper half of his body. I flew him to meet up with the Flying Doctor Service, some hours away.

Luckily, he survived but was critical in a Perth hospital for a week. I really have to thank Station Manager Michael Simons for the positive experience I had at Rawlinna. He was an absolutely fantastic boss who worked incredibly hard and set the standard for pastoral farming.

After finishing on the station, I travelled to Perth, bought a car and begun a 12,000 km journey, by myself, across Australia, in search of aviation employment. My trip from Perth to Brisbane via Darwin took me five weeks and throughout this time I slept in my car. I stopped off everywhere I could, 'cold calling' at charter companies, scenic flight outfits and flight schools. Unfortunately, all my hard work and expense did not pay off that time, but never the less, you can’t give in,

as you have to appreciate that aviation is a tough business to start out in.

It took me sixteen months of searching back and forth throughout Australasia to find aviation employment. During this time, I kept current, renewed my multiengine instrument rating, increased my night hours and continued to make ends meet by working at Hellers Small Goods once again. It was a tough time but you must never ever, ever, ever give up.

Networking is a big part of being successful in any career as it’s not what you know necessarily, but who you know that gets you the job. Ironically after all my searching it was my friends who I had met through microlighting years earlier that helped me find a job. In years past I had met Logan Mclean, the Alpi Aviation agent for New Zealand, through Ross. He and Ross spent a lot of time brainstorming ideas on how to secure me that elusive job.

Larry Hill (an aviation friend of Logan’s) took it upon himself to help me too. His profound knowledge of New Zealand aviation was a big help as he was able to point me in the direction of a parachute operation in Queenstown, called Nzone.

James Hill, Larry’s son, just so happened to be advancing on in his aviation career from Nzone. Finally I had become 'Johnny on the spot,' with the right attitude, drive, experience and applicable hours to secure the job.

Currently I am training on Nzone’s Supervan 900 which has been a thrilling experience. I hope to be operational dropping parachutes by the end of this year.

I would love to return to gliding one day. It’s a completely different sort of flying and such fun. Unfortunately my current work happens during the prime gliding months.

November 2016–January 2017

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a question of safety influences, supervision, preconditions and unsafe acts. Looking at the unsafe act, it stands out, but often there are latent or hidden factors that have just as much, if not more effect on causing the accident.

STEVEN CARE National Operationals Officer

Instructors’ Training Techniques Those who know me or have been on an instructors’ course at Matamata will realise that I practise and encourage an interactive style of teaching. While all students are different, they will retain much more if they are active in the learning process and the instructor has a relaxed and open manner. Our Instructor’s Manual talks about feedback loops. Doing these using open questions/ discussions is a really good way to really find out what has been understood.

I am also quite strict on what belongs in a classroom or briefing situation and what belongs in the air while flying.

For instance, when role playing stalls (although this applies to all exercises), I occasionally get instructors that feel they can do both at the same time. They go on about angle of attack at 15 degrees, laminar and turbulent air flow, washout, the dangers etc. This is a lot to explain to the back of someone’s head. None of it is easily absorbed by the student and is much better discussed on the ground in an interactive face to face experience.

In the air you should focus on what the student is going to see, feel or hear.

Personal Minimums As I have said before, spring is the time of year when we are often most ambitious and least current. It is important to have plans, but also to make sure that your skills match what you are trying to achieve. Most accidents in spring are where pilots have not paid attention to the 3 big Cs: Currency, Competency and non-Complacency.

Aerobatics Further to my report in the last magazine, it is now possible to gain an aerobatic rating. There are a few senior instructors now rated to issue new ratings. The first step should be an instructor rating, but there is no problem to include aero ratings if wanted. Please read the now updated AC 2-06. If your club is wanting to and has the resources to run a course, please get in contact with your ROO; Peter Thorpe, Mike Tucker or Graham Erikson.

Instructor Competency Reviews (ICR’s) I am not sure that these are well understood by CFI’s or Instructor Panels. The Op’s team is looking at the current forms, to see if they are actually doing what was intended. There may be an update shortly, but meanwhile, continue to use the current version.

Swiss Cheese Model There has been a lot of study into what causes accidents and how we can prevent them. A significant contributor to this was James Reason, who came up with the Swiss Cheese Model. He purported four layers of defences before an accident happens. Any weakness in those defences is a hole and if holes in those layers line up then an accident can occur. The four layers of defence are organisational

Unsafe acts: As human beings we will always be prone to error. Well-designed systems will recognise this. As well as errors, there are also violations; knowing that something is not the right thing to do, but doing it anyway.

Preconditions for Unsafe Acts: Environmental factors, physical and technological. Pilot mental and physical skills, personal risk assessment factors!

Unsafe supervision: Inadequate supervision and training, planned inappropriate operations, failure to correct known problems and supervision violations.

Organisational Influences: Lack of safety promotion, organisational acceptance of known hazards, funding restrictions, weaknesses in training, not learning from previous events, organisational climate and processes.

The above is a big picture view of human factors. Each time we have an accident or incident, we should revisit one or more of these four areas to see if we can patch up a hole, but at the same time making sure we don’t end up creating another one.

Club Training Records Does your club have a folder of club training records? There should be completed syllabus forms for every A Cert through to QGP, Tow Pilot, Instructor, Winch Driver, Powered Glider rating that has been issued in the last three years.

Some clubs do really well, but many tend to overlook the need to get these important documents into club records.

By David Mack - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31679759

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airworthiness men brought a contagious enthusiasm for the art and science of lovingly preserving these intricate structures and keeping them in flying condition.

MARTYN COOK National Airworthiness Officer

I was intrigued to learn how Schleicher wooden gliders were originally built in the period after WW II. The primary structures (e.g. main spar) were glued together in the factory under tightly controlled conditions, but secondary and tertiary structures (e.g. control surfaces) were often sub-contracted and not necessarily built or inspected to the same standards. Combine this with the fiddly nature of the glues in use at the time (e.g. mixing ratios, settling times, viscosity measurements, pot life) and it becomes apparent that a glue failure in a minor part of a structure does not imply an overall airframe weakness.

Roger Andrews oversees a pre-cover inspection of GLV wing

Stan Smith watches as Roger Brown applies a fabric tester

Photos Mike Strathern

Stan Smith demonstrates a brittleness test on a wing spar

Inspecting a Wooden Glider From the beginning of time – well, aviation time anyway – aircraft have been constructed with wood, glue, fabric and wire, with bolts, nuts and metal fittings thrown in to hold all the parts together. Many gliders built in this way remain airworthy, but as these materials slowly degrade with passing years, the business of determining airworthiness gets a little tricky.

Over the weekend 5-6 November 2016 Gliding NZ and the NZ Civil Aviation Authority combined to present a

practical seminar called, Wood, Glue and Fabric Inspection Techniques. The aim was to update the knowledge and skills of engineers inspecting wooden airframes. 42 engineers participated; 15 being past or present glider engineers.

We welcomed two special guests: Roger Andrews from Midland Gliding Club at Long Mynd in UK, where he is engaged full-time maintaining a colourful fleet of wooden gliders, and our own Stan Smith from Dairy Flat in Auckland, who started building wooden model aircraft as a youngster and just never stopped. Both

Roger was very positive about the airworthiness potential of older wooden gliders, but the body of knowledge in NZ will need to be cultivated. It's clear that the British Gliding Association holds a lot of knowledge and experience and is worth tapping into.

Stan made the point that these airframes need to be carefully stored to ensure preservation. Extreme dryness (e.g. hot attic) causes wood to dry out and if the moisture content is allowed to drop much below 15%, the structure could become brittle. He demonstrated a simple knife-test to check for brittleness. On the other hand, excess moisture and dampness is also the enemy of wood, glue and fabric so damp hangars and leaky trailers will shorten their life.

John Bushell and his Airworthiness team at CAA put in a lot of effort to organise the seminar. Participants worked in groups of three and were required to inspect and report on seven different ‘scenarios’ during the day. It was a hands-on experience for all. It was interesting how a second or third set of eyes often discovered something that the first person overlooked, underlining the usefulness of second opinions and duplicate checks.

Looking to the future, I would like to see clusters of enthusiasts banding together to preserve and fly these historical machines, if only for the low cost and simple joy of flight that they offer generations to come.

November 2016–January 2017

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This column is intended to give readers an ongoing insight into the activities of the GNZ Executive and its Committees. Rather than a detailed report on matters currently under consideration, here are some recent items of significance.

gliding new zealand news KAREN MORGAN GNZ President

As I write, I have been flying in the South Island Regional Competition. This is a must do annual gliding goal. It is always a privilege to see New Zealand from a glider and it is pure fun to do it with such an interesting range of local and visiting pilots. I hope that you all meet your gliding goals this season.

I also plan to attend some of the Omarama Youth Glide camp next month but much of my summer spare time will be taken up with supporting our team at the World Champs in Benalla, Australia. You can follow this event on Soaring Spot and Facebook. Good luck to all the competitors.

Along with CAA, GNZ was involved in a recent training session on wood and fabric aircraft. I am told that participant engineers have learned a lot so many thanks to the trainers and organisers.

There are always more World events coming up so see the MOAP rules and contact the Sailplane Racing Committee if you want to have a go. The dates are important so apply before the deadlines please.

The Trustees of the GNZ Umbrella Trust met this week and have made a range of grants for training. The Trust had previously made a large grant for the NZ team to Benalla and it has recently provided loans to a couple of clubs for significant capital equipment. If you want to apply for anything, the information is all on GNZ's website. The closing dates for grants are 31 May and 31 October each year and clubs can seek loans at any time.

The fund has passed $1 million and it is there to be used.

Brian Sharpe, GNZ's Promotions and Marketing Manager, will be emailing members soon about a Club Member Experience Survey that we are taking part in early next year, through Sport New Zealand. This is a follow-on step from our session at the June AGM on membership growth and development. Please can you all complete this to help us get the most out of the venture.

Coaching starts this season. The MOAP has been adjusted to encompass this and the brand-new coaching manual is on the website. G Dale will be running three coaching courses this season – in Matamata, Greytown and Springfield.

Steve Wallace will be getting the information out if you have not already received it.

Have a great summer season and please fly safely.

GNZ awards & certificates

SEPTEMBER 2016 – NOVEMBER 2016

EDOUARD DEVENOGES GNZ Awards Officer

gnzawards@xtra.co.nz 40 Eversham Road, Mt Maunganui 3116.

QGP No 3337 3338 3339 3340 3341

Pilot’s Name Soeren Stork Richard Penman Thomas O’Rourke Bradley W. Newfield Timothy E. J. Dutton

GOLD HEIGHT

Hugh De Lautour

Club Taupo GC Canterbury GC Auckland ASC Glide Omarama Canterbury GC

Date 1 9 2016 21 10 2016 27 10 2016 31 10 2016 4 11 2016

Glider

Taupo GC

9 11 2016

Ventus CT

AIR NZ CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS

Pilot’s Name Club Northern Division

David Dennison Piako GC

William Kamp Piako GC

Glyn Jackson Taranaki GC

David Muckle Piako GC

Will Hopkirk Taranaki GC

John Spence Taranaki GC

Michael Cooper Tauranga GC Southern Division

Glyn Jackson Taranaki GC

Wills Dobson Central Otago FC

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November 2016–January 2017

Points 239.99 179.94 139.88 93.06 87.63 69.69 68.68 373.61 113.65

GLIDING NEW ZEALAND CLUB NEWS

CLUB DIRECTORY

Link for club info www.gliding.co.nz/Clubs/Clubs.htm Auckland Aviation Sports Club Club Website www.ascgliding.org Club Contact Peter Thorpe pbthorpe@xtra.co.nz Ph 09 413 8384 Base RNZAF Base Auckland (Whenuapai) 021 146 4288 Flying Weekends, Public Holidays

Norfolk Aviation Sports Club Club Website http://www.geocities.com/norfolkgliding/ Club Contact Kevin Wisnewski wizzbang@xtra.co.nz Ph (06) 756 8289 Base Norfolk Rd Flying Weekends and by appointment

Auckland Gliding Club Club Website www.glidingauckland.co.nz Club Ph (09) 294 8881, 0276 942 942 Club Contact Ed Gray info@glidingauckland.co.nz Base Appleby Rd, Drury Flying Weekends, Wednesdays, Public Holidays

Omarama Gliding Club Club Website http://www.omarama.com Club Contact Bruce Graham bruceandstell@xtra.co.nz Ph (03) 358 3251 Base Omarama Flying 7 days a week by arrangement

Canterbury Gliding Club Club Website www.glidingcanterbury.co.nz Club Contact Kevin Bethwaite kevin.bethwaite@airways.co.nz Ph (03) 318 4758 Base Swamp Road, Springfield Flying Weekends, Public Holidays

Piako Gliding Club Club Website www.glidingmatamata.co.nz Club Contact Steve Care s.care@xtra.co.nz Ph (07) 843 7654 or 027 349 1180 Base Matamata Airfield, Ph (07) 888 5972 Flying Weekends, Wednesdays and Public Holidays

Central Otago Flying Club (Inc) Club Website www.cofc.co.nz Club Contact Phil Sumser phil.sumser@xtra.co.nz Base Alexandra Airport Flying Sundays, and by arrangement

Rotorua Gliding Club Club Website http://www.rotoruaglidingclub.blogspot.co.nz/ Club Contact Mike Foley roseandmikefoley@clear.net.nz Ph (07) 347 2927 Base Rotorua Airport Flying Sundays

Glide Omarama.com Website www.GlideOmarama.com Contact Gavin Wills gtmwills@xtra.co.nz Base Omarama Airfield Flying October through April 7 days per week Gliding Hawkes Bay and Waipukurau Club Website www.glidinghbw.co.nz Club Contact E-mail: info@glidinghbw.co.nz, Ph 027 2877 522 Base Hastings Airfield (Bridge Pa) and Waipukurau Airfield (December & February) Flying Sundays and other days by arrangement Gliding Hutt Valley (Upper Valley Gliding Club) Club Contact Wayne Fisk wayne_fisk@xtra.co.nz Ph (04) 567-3069 Base Kaitoke Airfield, (04) 526 7336 Flying Weekends, Public Hols., Mid week by arrangement Gliding Manawatu Club Website www.glidingmanawatu.org.nz Club Contact Ron Sanders Resanders@xtra.co.nz Base Feilding Aerodrome Flying Weekends, Public holidays Gliding Wairarapa Club Website http://www.glidingwairarapa.co.nz/ Club Contact Diana Braithwaite Ph (06) 308 9101 Base Papawai Airfield, 5 km east of Greytown Ph (06) 308 8452 or 025 445 701 Flying Weekends, or by arrangement Kaikohe Gliding Club Club Contact Peter Fiske, (09) 407 8454 Email Keith Falla keith@falla.co.nz Base Kaikohe Airfield, Mangakahia Road, Kaikohe Flying Sundays, Thursdays and Public Holidays Marlborough Gliding Club Club Website http://glide_marl.tripod.com Club Contact bmog@paradise.net.nz Base Omaka Airfield, Blenheim Flying Sundays and other days by arrangement Masterton Soaring Club Club Contact Michael O’Donnell modp@missionkayaking.com Ph (03) 473 1721 Base Masterton Aerodrome Flying By arrangement Nelson Lakes Gliding Club Club Website www.glidingnelson.co.nz Club Contact Frank Saxton franksaxton@gmail.com Ph (03) 546 6098 Base Lake Station Airfield, St.Arnaud Ph (03) 521 1870 Flying Weekends and Public Holidays

South Canterbury Gliding Club Club Website www.glidingsouthcanterbury.co.nz Club Contact John Eggers johneggers@xtra.co.nz 33 Barnes St Timaru Base Levels Timaru & Omarama Wardell Field Flying Weekends, Public Holidays & by arrangement Taranaki Gliding Club Club Website www.glidingtaranaki.com Club Contact Peter Williams peter.williams@xtra.co.nz Ph (06) 278 4292 Base Stratford Flying Weekends and Public Holidays Taupo Gliding Club Club Website www.taupoglidingclub.co.nz Club Contact Tom Anderson Tomolo@xtra.co.nz PO Box 296, Taupo 2730 Ph (07) 378 5506 M 0274 939 272 Base Centennial Park, Taupo Flying 7 days a week Tauranga Gliding Club Club Website www.glidingtauranga.co.nz Club President Adrian Cable adrian.cable@xtra.co.nz Base Tauranga Airport Flying Weekends and Public Holidays, Wednesday afternoons and other times on request Wellington Gliding Club Club Website http://www.soar.co.nz Club President Brian Sharpe bwsharpe@xtra.co.nz Ph 027 248 1780 Base Greytown Soaring Centre, Papawai Airfield, 5 km east of Greytown Bookings Ph 027 618 9845 (operations) Flying Weekends and Public Holidays 7 days a week December through to March

The club news is your chance to share with the rest of the country and abroad, some of what makes your club the best gliding club in the world. Club scribes, please watch the deadlines (but we'll make allowances for special circumstances so contact the editor before you panic) and likewise, the word count is supposed to be 300 words to allow everyone to have a say. If you need more words than that, you probably should write a real article about that special event.

Deadline for club news for the next issue 10 January 2017.

AUCKLAND AVIATION SPORTS CLUB Our winter of discontent has passed...we hope. Endless rain, showers and wind. Yes, wind, but only once in the correct range for a Coast run. The airfield ponds have filled but the excellent drainage on the runway proper has worked well. Our young folk have progressed well with Isabel Burr achieving solo and a number of others working towards this goal. We have continued to host ATC Cadets and Air Scouts. In addition, Rahul Bagchi and Brendon Moore have also gone solo.

Our annual Labour Weekend deployment to Matamata went without a hitch, as long as one forgets the wheels up landing. Some lessons to be learnt there on distraction and checklists. Although the weather was good, Saturday was fairly quiet with John Shuttleworth's funeral, and we only flew in the afternoon. Sunday was excellent weather and a very busy airfield with three gliding clubs (Auckland GC with three gliders, Piako and us), three flying schools, private power planes and the parachute operation. Eyes out and ears open were the watchwords.

Monday's weather was overcast and a neutral sky despite the false promise of some wave.

Many went home early. Around half of the club turned out for the weekend although our two Steves (Wallace and Foreman) were missing as they were competing in the Australian Nationals. As always, the Piako folk were the perfect and welcoming hosts. Many thanks for a great weekend.

We look forward to a summer of fine days, many thermals and long flights. Ahhh, the soaring season.

Graham

AUCKLAND CLUB NEWS Our season is at last starting up here in Auckland. Our field – which we own – usually has to shut for only a few weeks but this year has been much worse and regular flying only started properly in early November. Of course, November 2016–January 2017

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CLUB NEWS this affects our cash flow which was the last thing we needed. Lots of other things have been happening however. We have received and put into service a Discus 2b (ZK-GBI) which is to replace our Discus CS. Early reports are positive and so far, everyone who has flown it exits the cockpit with a big smile. We have sent our Duo Discus down to Omarama with our invitee instructor Arnulf Snekvik. Arnulf has shown several of our members just how much fun can be had at one of the world’s premier soaring sites.

So far the initiative is achieving our goal of showing our members the spectacular flying available during a period when our soaring up North is unsettled and difficult to predict. We also had many members visiting Omarama for the Cross Country week and the Regionals. Eight AGC members ventured southwards (not including Arnulf) and everyone had a great time, both in the air and on the ground. Thanks to the hospitality of the Canterbury and Omarama Clubs and the Glide Omarama crew.

We have several new members on our committee and we are currently considering many innovative ways to invigorate our membership and of course, our financial position. These ideas range from running courses for early trainees, to setting up a cross country focussed group, using mentors to assist with achieving XC goals, large and small. We also intend to focus on providing fun social events as these undoubtedly add to the club spirit.

Over the last few months we have had a few great nights at the club with club dinners and private functions. Two significant events were the 50th and 80th birthday parties of

Canterbury:

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November 2016–January 2017

Canterbury:

Dion Manktelow and Maurie Honey. Both centred around music (loud rock and country) and provided much too much fun until very late at night. Congratulations to both these hard working AGC members.

With weather improving, we are getting ready to have some busy days and evenings.

We are supporting our traditional Christmas camp to Matamata as well as ensuring locals have launching at Drury seven days a week. On 7th January, we start our Drury Competition which is already gaining in numbers, as many know just how good the soaring is in January from Drury. As always, we welcome visitors – don’t drive past – drop in and say hello.

RG

CANTERBURY In September, the Canterbury Club welcomed Paul Marriott from England as the resident instructor and tow pilot for the summer.

Also in September, Mark Aldridge ran a very successful, week long Ab Initio course with five students. Tim Hughes went solo and the others were coming along well. Labour Weekend saw a good turnout at Springfield.

There was quite a lot of flying, a well-attended social BBQ on Saturday night and a lovely meal at the Sheffield Hotel on Sunday night.

There have been some great soaring days with great thermals and wave easily accessible from our Springfield strip. The experienced pilots have been flying as far as

CLUB NEWS the St Bathans in the south, and Blenheim to the north.

In November the Club Instructors hosted Martyn Cook for his presentation of a new training system being trialled by the Wellington Club. Warwick Bethwaite ran a successful Cross Country course at Springfield, giving some budding pilots valuable skills to leave the home field.

Quite a few members attended the South Island Gliding Championships in Omarama which was marred by very average weather, although it finished on a great soaring day.

The Open Class had enough days for a contest with club member Max Stevens finishing second to Keith Essex and Kev Bethwaite coming an unofficial second in the Racing Class.

We have seen quite a few new faces at the Club and enthusiam is at a high level.

Congratulations to Jimmi Taylor for going solo in November. On the 29th of November there was some notable flights by club members in the NW wave. Terry Delore managed to fly from Omarama to near Napier, crossing Cook Strait from 24,000 feet and landing at Masterton when he couldn’t make it back across. While he was doing that, Max Stevens did a flight of over 1,000 km. Well done.

The Youth Soaring Development Camp is about to start with the club helping out with some resources.

Merry Christmas to everyone.

John

GLIDING HAWKES BAY AND WAIPUKURAU Poor soaring weather has been the dominant recent feature with a number of weekends having no flying due to rain. A planned weekend flying from Dannevirke was deferred due to unsuitable weather and the Skylux auto tug is awaiting a fine weekend for tow pilots to get their type ratings and then begin aerotowing.

The long planned, blind circuit and spot landing competitions are still to be held, so the annual club trophy presentation is awaiting completion of these.

However, not all has not been lost on the soaring front with Josh Ferguson and Jason Kelly having a good flight one Sunday around the local area. They flew between rain showers, utilising the abundant energy in the atmosphere.

Members have been making improvements on the glider trailer parking area and fences while not flying. Further improvements are planned to provide shade during the typical Hawkes Bay warm sunny days.

The club undertook a Fathers’ Day promotion with a local radio station, offering a free trial flight as a daily prize. While this has not resulted in any appreciable increase in trial flights or interest to date, it has hopefully sowed the seeds of interest to a wide audience. The radio station reported the competition was very successful from their perspective with high interest from their listeners.

Despite the weather, trial flights and training have continued when possible with several new members joining the ranks.

Allie Thompson and Josh Ferguson attended the Youth Glide mini-camp at Greytown at Labour Weekend and enjoyed meeting other young pilots and the flying opportunities available to them.

Congratulations to Allie for obtaining her winch launch rating.

A few members are planning trips to Omarama over summer with one of the club’s two seaters to be based there from the start of the Youth Camp in early December until the end of the Nationals in mid-January.

Summer is not far away and we look forward to improved soaring weather.

TAUPO At long last, winter is showing signs of moving on and we are now experiencing some lovely spring soaring conditions.

Our away camp to Matamata had to be postponed three times and then cancelled due to wet conditions, which was a disappointment to all of those who intended to fly there. Although the flying had been hindered by the inclement weather, the moving forward of the club has not. TGC is now the proud new owner of the ASW28, ZK-GSS, which arrived at the club towards the end of October. This exciting new machine will allow our members a greater opportunity of cross country flying and will be enjoyed for many years to come.

The Central Plateau Soaring Competition was held at the end of October and those who attended had an enjoyable week. The week was won by that cunning fella flying a Duo, congratulations Trevor, and David Jensen won the early bird raffle draw which was a trip out on Lake Taupo. Tim Bromhead, fresh from his adventures in Australia, had one of the best speeds for a North Island thermal flight – 121 km/h, well done Tim. This year the competition was mixed up a bit with a good ridge day flying out of Matamata when Taupo was not flyable.

A new clubhouse roof and some other minor modifications are in the pipe line. This will assist Tom greatly as he won’t have to run around with buckets to catch the water

entering the clubhouse. We also have a new member - of the four legged variety. A stray kitten arrived a while back and is now the club cat. Tiger has been doing her job well as we have not seen any field mice for some time.

Currently Hugh de Lautour and Bill Kendall are having a great time on the South Island. Both are participating in Jerry’s Cross Country course at Omarama. We are looking forward to hearing about their experiences when they get back.

Well, that’s about it from us. So from all of us here at Taupo, may you all have awesome flying weather over the summer, fly well and have a Merry Christmas and Prosperous New Year.

Trace

TARANAKI We’ve only managed three flying days for October with the single-seaters doing most of the hours. One good club day on the 23rd saved things from being completely embarrassing. On the 31st there were some long, rambling single seat flights. Peter Cook had some good flying at the Central Plateau comps and was third for much of the time.

He may well have finished in that spot, had he and Helen not gone off to Napier to look at the Art Deco there. He wistfully observed the good gliding weather on that side of the island though.

The Stratford Airfield is still very wet with soft patches for the unwary. No flying for November so far and both this and the next weekend look dismal. The Ventus is down at Omarama, but I’m unsure if it has flown a competition flight in the climate plagued contest there, let alone tried to negotiate the way back to Taranaki past the earthquake ravaged Marlborough region.

The committee has decided to depart from the selling of Trial Flight vouchers which we have done for many a year. From now on, flights are only available to people enquiring on a flying day. Many thanks to James Walker who has been the ‘face’ of the gliding club to those wanting to buy vouchers as gifts. I must say that it has been great fun for me too, writing the advertising, dealing with the enquirers and telling them of what was involved. Latterly, all our responses have been via the website.

And John Spence is now on the committee. He is, as well, busy doing as much gliding as he can and providing respectability to the aircraft hours done each flying day.

Papa Mike

November 2016–January 2017

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F OR S A L E • WA N T E D • S E R V IC E S • E V E N T S

We take our classifieds list from the GNZ website and from ads detailed with us personally. To update your ad, please go online or advise our webmaster.

Ads notified to SoaringNZ will appear on this page but we are unable to make changes for you on the web page. Please contact the webmaster if your item sells.

GLIDERS DG 400 Self Launching Glider • ZK GOM first flew in December 1984.

1,793 hours and 247 hours on the engine. 15 and 17m tips, tow out gear, hanger covers, 2 canopy covers, EDS and A8A oxygen with quick connect refill. Cambridge nav and Winter mechanical varios. Dittel FSG60M radio and Terra transponder. Trailer has cobra fittings and ability to charge batteries via an external socket while glider is in the trailer. Ideal syndicate glider – fly any day of the week! Price reduced. $75,000. Phone Mark Aldridge 0274 508 505 email: mda@308.kiwi.nz SILENT IN • Self Launching Sailplane $46K. Alisport (Italy) self launching sailplane with retracting Alisport 302efi FADEC 28hp engine driving a monoblade propeller. For full details, Google 'Alisport Silent In' or <alisport.com>. Airframe 890hrs, engine and propeller less than 4hrs (new 2013). Removeable winglets, tinted canopy, usual instruments plus Trig TT21 transponder (with Mode S). Wing wheel, tail dolly and one man rig gear. Excellent open trailer with current reg. and WOF. Currently registered as Class 1 microlight. Phone Neville Swan 09 4167125 email: nswan@ xtra.co.nz Nimbus 2. ZK-GKV • A well known glider and glider type. I am sad to have to part with this wonderful glider but needs must so I have reduced the price. 49:1 – best LD for money. Brand new PU paint on the fuselage and wing PU only 5 years old. Double bladed air brakes. New Schempp Hirth canopy, new mylar seals on wing, good road trailer. Price Reduced. $35,000. Phone Steve Barham 021 642 484 email: barham@xtra.co.nz Ventus 2cT 15/18m – ZK-GRY • Finished in PU paint from new and has every factory option available at the time including 15m Wingtips, Mountain High 02 system, Nose and C of G hooks, On board refuelling system, Tail tank etc with Anschau Komet trailer. Full panel including 57mm Winter Altimeter, ASI and vario, Microair radio and Txpdr, CAI 302DDV with Oudie2 flight computer and Tru Track A/H with GPS heading. Phone Alan Belworthy 0274 960 748 email: a.belworthy@xtra.co.nz JS1C TJ • Expressions of interest are invited for my JS1C which will be available when it returns to NZ after the WGC in January 2017. ZK-GVZ is an immaculate competition tuned sailplane landed Dec 2014. All major options with 18m EVO and 21m wingtips. Jet sustainer. Cobra trailer (15m size.) Very complete instrument panel including LX9070. Custom Gagula leather cockpit interior. LiFePO4 batteries. Ground handling equipment etc.

Phone Brett Hunter 021 927 626 email: bhunter@kinect.co.nz Puchacz aerobatic trainer • Two seat ab initio trainer with classic spin and recovery. Tauranga is serious about selling one or both of its Puchacz trainers as we wish to purchase a DG 1000. Check our club Facebook page for videos of these gliders in action. $35,000. Phone Adrian 027 473 8231 email: adrian.cable@xtra.co.nz Nimbus 2b ZK-GIW • Next ARA due Dec 2016 1857hrs 533 flts. PU Paint, Fixed Tail plane, All Surfaces Sealed and Mylared, Tabulator Tape, Mask Winglets, Double Bladed Airbrakes, Tinted Canopy, Adjustable seat back, L-Nav, GPS-Nav, Oxy, C Mode Transponder, National Parachute, Tow out gear, Trestles. One man electric wing rigging cradle. Trailer refurbished

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November 2016–January 2017

and New Trojan Axles fitted. Glider located at Auckland. $45,000 ono.

Phone Marc Morley 027 462 6751 email: morleym27@gmail.com Swift Ultra Light Glider and full trailer unit • Foot Launch pod, Motorised pod and Accessories including ballistic parachute. About 15 years old, very low flying time. Been in storage for past 5 years & not been flown. Less than 60 hours flying time. Engine done approx 30 hours and it is working.

More details about glider and plenty of photos for anyone interested. $20,500. Phone Julie Bryant 027 673 5348 email: julie.bryant@xtra.co.nz Std Astir CS77 ZK-GMC • 1820 Hours total time. Recent annual and ARA inspection. New nose hook. Becker AR3201 radio Terra TRT 250 transponder. Good trailer. Can be viewed at the Tauranga Gliding club. May consider a syndicate. $22,500. Phone Ben Stimpson 027 555 5485 email: bstimpson@xtra.co.nz Std Cirrus GNC • Winglets, Good condition, Good trailer, Good panel. $25,000 Phone Rob Shuttleworth 021 0814 4937 email: shuttleworthrobjohn@gmail.com Standard Jantar 2 ZK-GML • This glider is in excellent order and very good for a first Glider. Current hours 3160. New wing spar pins fitted at 3000 hours. Now OK to 6000 hours. Radio, Altimeter, Transponder and E.L.T. checked May 2016. Current ARA good until February 2017. Trailer will need some work to make road worthy. Photos on Taupo Gliding Club website. Inspection Welcome at Centennial Park, Taupo. $28,000. Phone Tom Anderson 07 378 5627 email: tomolo@xtra.co.nz PW5 ZK-GBD • Hours to Date 2276. This glider is in excellent condition.

Fuse, tail plane, wings and all control surfaces re-finished in 2008. Radio, Terra Transponder, ELT included. Avionics all checked May 2016. Owned

by TGC from new, this glider has given excellent service but is now ready for a new home. No trailer. Photos on Taupo Gliding Club website. Inspection Welcome at Centennial Park, Taupo. $10,000. Phone Tom Anderson 07 378 5627 email: tomolo@xtra.co.nz

HANGARS 18m hangar spaces in the Omarama Hangar • $30,000 or near offer.

Phone Mike Hamilton 03 962 1530 email: mike.hamilton@hamjet.co.nz.

Omarama Hangar 20m west facing site • $1,800pm obo. $36,000. Phone Garry Wakefield 03 357 8995 email: garry@walaw.co.nz

OTHER FOR SALE Parachute originally used in a K6 • As far as I'm aware this parachute has never been used. It was repacked about 2012 by a master parachute packer in Masterton and was certified fit for use. It has been stored at home in a linen cupboard so is dry and free from mould etc. Am happy as condition of sale for the chute to be repacked (at purchaser’s cost) and certified as fit for use as a condition of sale. Selling as I no longer have a glider to use it on. All reasonable offers considered. Phone Paul Clarke 027 264 2254 email: paul_clarke@clear.net.nz Cheap trailer • Good project. Herewith one trailer that used to contain a Ventus C but can be easily adapted to other 15/18m gliders - or something smaller! Aluminium cladding on a steel frame and unfortunately some of the bracing steel underneath has reached the end of its life. It will need a complete strip-down to do the repairs properly, or a partial strip to bodge it. I'm not prepared to bodge it but someone else might be. The rest of the

GNZ members are eligible for one free non-commercial classified advertisement per issue.

Deadline for receipt of advertising for our February 2017 issue is 22 January 2017.

trailer is in good nick, weathertight and well-ventilated. WOF and rego both expired in April 2016. I'm open to sensible offers and can easily have my arm twisted if it's going to a worthy cause. Phone David Hirst 021 493 349 email: david.hirst.nz@gmail.com Vario, LX100, complete with flask, tubing and manual • Removed in serviceable condition, replaced with S80. Free freight within NZ, 30 day right of return/refund. $400 ono. Andy Mackay. Email: andymacfly2002@ yahoo.com Phone: 021 174 4719 Becker 4201 760 channel radio that was last serviced in 2013 • Wiring can be included if needed. $625. Email Ross Drake hcdswiss@gmail.com Dittel FSG2T • Due to the junior NZ team flying my libelle at the worlds and wanting dual listening capabilities I have decided to part with my Dittel FSG2T. Fantastic radio, no maintenance issues. Was last inspected in 2013 and hardly flown since. One of the best radios ever made. $750.

Email Ross Drake hcdswiss@gmail.com Serviceable Microair M760 radio • no microphone but requires electret mike. Can be fitted and tested by prospective buyer with money back assurance. $600 or best offer. Phone Andy Mackay 021 174 4719 email: andymacfly2002@yahoo.com

FOR RENT Chalet Omarama • Our Omarama chalet is available for rent in Feb and March. There is a queen size bed and sofa bed - BBQ and mountain bikes available. $90 per night plus cleaning if required. Phone Annie Laylee and G Dale 00447817203331 email: annlaylee@aol.com

WANTED Club Twin Trainer • Piako Gliding Club is looking for 2 seater glider to purchase for club training operations. Any options considered. Phone Tim Bromhead 021 217 9049 email: tim@pear.co.nz Turn and Slip • 2 1/4 inch (53mm) wanted, must be in good working condition will pay up to $250.00 for a suitable unit. Phone Terry Delore 021 782 694 email: terry-wendy-delore@xtra.co.nz EW MicroRecorder SD • If anyone has one that they no longer need and want to sell please let me know, thanks. Phone Glyn Jackson 021 0250 4646 email: glyn@glynjackson.com

FOR SALE ASH26e (GRL)

Serial number 111 Hours 950 Engine 105 hrs (only 6 years old) Cobra trailer, wing walker and tow out gear.

This is a fabulous self-launching motor glider in very good condition with the ever popular and fully supported rotary engine.

For more information call Nigel 03 327 4822 or Dave 027 201 7120

OMARAMA CHALET FOR SALE

Instructors Wanted, Omarama • Experienced Instructors required at Omarama from October through March in one of the three following categories: 1. BCat Instructor, 1000 hrs, 500 hrs at OA 2. BCat Instructor, 1000 hrs, tow rating, 200 hrs tail-wheel 3. BCat Instructor, 1000 hrs, 500 hrs OA, German speaking Extensive cross-country coaching as well as basic instruction experience is required. Guy@glideomarama.com 03 4389 555

MISCELLANEOUS Give A Little Page for Steve Wallace. A sponsor will pay Steve $2,500 towards his World Gliding Champ costs IF we can raise $5,000.

That means Steve would get $7500. Go to givealittle.co.nz and search for Steve Wallace Glider Pilot.

On the airfield, one of 27 chalets on land subleased from Omarama Soaring Centre, built 2009 for Dick Georgeson.

Furnished & fully equipped, dishwasher etc., sky tv Enquiries from 10 October 2016: Anna 03 322 8190 email: wilson.georgeson@gmail.com

November 2016–January 2017

51

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